Anchor or sinker

Large firms, anchoring capacity and regional development

Abstract

This paper ties together two literatures which explain regional anchoring from different perspectives. One is based on the role of large organizations in anchoring an industry in a region, the other is systemic and deals with anchoring processes that circulate and embed knowledge. Each leaves implicit what the other explains. The aim is to understand how anchor effects and regional anchoring capacity interact across different regional contexts. Illustrative cases from three Swedish regions show how the two both diverge from and reinforce each other, anchor without anchoring and anchoring without an anchor, depending on regional configuration and anchor control.