Shaping opportunity spaces: the role of narratives in place leadership

This paper aims to identify micro-level processes shaping the narratives surrounding regional opportunity spaces. A process perspective is applied to examine how place leaders engage in shaping narratives to influence the perception of opportunity spaces. The empirical research is based on a comparative case study of four peripheral regions in Germany, comprising 92 interviews with regional stakeholders and two cross-regional focus groups. The findings emphasise the central role of place leadership in shaping the perception of regional opportunity spaces, illustrate the various pathways of changing dominant narratives (e.g., endogenous or exogenous) and provide a multiple-phase framework for their analysis.