Regional competence: an analytical framework for its study

Within the current economic scenario of growing globalization, which goes along with a relative increase of factor mobility, the role of territories and their tendency to compete for economic success is under debate. In this context it seems relevant to question what motivates this competence, which the mechanisms behind it are, which actors participate, what its objectives and its consequences are. To answer these inquiries, based on a selective literature review, here we suggest a logic structure subject to empirical applicability to analyze what we call territorial competence. This is conceptualized as a process intrinsically linked to a phenomenon of considerable scale and scope in the literature, namely: competitiveness.