Title: Collective learning and path plasticity as means to regional economic resilience: the case of Stuttgart

Authors: Rüdiger Wink; Laura Kirchner; Florian Koch; Daniel Speda

Addresses: HTWK Leipzig, P.O. Box 301166, 04251 Leipzig, Germany ' HTWK Leipzig, P.O. Box 301166, 04251 Leipzig, Germany ' HTWK Leipzig, P.O. Box 301166, 04251 Leipzig, Germany ' HTWK Leipzig, P.O. Box 301166, 04251 Leipzig, Germany

Abstract: This paper links two strands of literature (collective learning and resilience) by looking at experiences with collective learning as precondition of regional economic resilience. Based on a qualitative empirical study, the emergence of collective learning structures in the Stuttgart region after a macroeconomic and structural crisis at the beginning of the 1990s is investigated. This process of building up adaptive capabilities in the region follows a pattern of institutional path plasticity. The relevance of these experiences with adjustment processes and adaptive capabilities for the economic performance during the great recession in 2008-2009 is finally shown by following episodic narratives of interview partners and secondary firm panel results.

Keywords: regional economic resilience; collective learning; institutional path plasticity; episodic narratives; regional development; Stuttgart; Germany; adaptive capabilities.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLC.2015.069071

International Journal of Learning and Change, 2015 Vol.8 No.1, pp.21 - 41

Received: 07 Apr 2014
Accepted: 04 Aug 2014
Published online: 26 Apr 2015 *

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