Competitiveness of the Regions: Theoretical-methodological Notes

An increased interest in regional competitiveness studies within recent years has been conditional to many circumstances. These factors we can identify in the effects of global economic crisis, strengthening European cohesion policy, asserting the institutional theories of regional development, the effort to gain knowledge about deeper influential connections in between existing regional disparities and a growing impact of regional culture (broadly understood). In this paper we divide the discussions on regional competitiveness into three main parts: the changing concept of a region in context of regionally based studies, broadly understood regional culture as a main factor of regional development and discussion on chosen questions in theory and methodology of regional competitiveness studies.