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This paper aims to contribute to the study of agency in regional development first by elaborating a typology of organizational- and system-level agency constellations in regions. Second, the paper outlines the main individual and collective assets which influence the vigour and sophistication of organizational- and system-level agency and by specifying the main drivers upon which the exertion of usually more scarce system-level agency is contingent. Empirically, via 30 in-depth interviews, the role of agency is studied in a region with multiple disadvantages. Nevertheless, innovative endogenous companies exist in this region, and we examined their compensation and exploitation strategies aimed at eluding unfavourable regional assets and almost-missing system-level agency. Finally, we outline several potential avenues for transformation in the case study's region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the role of agency in regional industrial path development using an integrated framework that combines three recent conceptualizations of agency: (1) firm- and system-level agency; (2) trinity-of-change agency; and (3) reproductive and change agency. Our framework redefines firm- and system-level agency into organizational- and system-level agency to enable a more nuanced and multifaceted understanding of the agency of various regional actors. Empirically, we contribute to the literature by analysing the evolutionary trajectories of two coal regions with vastly contrasting development dynamics. Our research primarily attributes these divergences to the substantial differences in the nature and vigour of system-level agency. However, our empirical research reveals that most actors exerted both organizational- and system-level agency, although at profoundly different intensities and scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional innovation systems in Central and Eastern Europe suffer from many handicaps connected with generally lower levels of business activity and unfavourable positions of firms within global value chains. In this paper, results of business coaching programmes implemented in South Moravia (Czechia) are evaluated. The success of support is assessed (1) in terms of turnover, value added and employment growth (using a counterfactual analysis), and (2) according to the maturity of companies. Average annual growth of the treated companies was higher compared to a control group of non-supported firms. Apart from the initial dynamic growth, the supported start-ups underwent the fastest growth between 2 and 3 years after entering the programme, when the impact of the support on their performance was fully expressed. The findings bring new insights into the effects of targeted support of companies, using unique company data combined with qualitative information on the results of evaluated measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]