Green path development, asset modification and agency: towards a systemic integrative approach

Regions across the world are facing to an ever-increasing extent the pressure to find solutions to adverse environmental impacts of economic development. Tackling such challenges requires major restructuring efforts by nurturing new green growth paths and promoting green shifts in mature industries. The paper aims to explore conceptually and based on illustrative empirical examples from the literature how green restructuring unfolds in regions. We propose a systemic
integrative approach that distinguishes between various types of green path development and links them to reconfiguration processes of innovation systems. Our framework elucidates how green restructuring and system transformation are related to various types of modifying the region’s asset base and provides insights into the role of agency at the firm and system level in
bringing about such changes.