Small regions hosting large firms: when, how and why can local agency (not) shape regional development paths?

There is a growing interest in the role of agency in shaping regional development paths in smaller, peripheral regions. However, when structural pre-conditions are limited or unfavourable, opportunities for local actors are constrained. In this paper, we combine the concepts of agency and opportunity space with a process-model of adaptive cycles in order to identify when, how, and why local actors are (not) able to shape regional development paths. Empirically, we focus on small regions hosting large firms: a regional context with unfavourable structural pre-conditions and particularly visible constraints on local agency. Using original material drawn from three comparative case studies in Finland and Sweden (1990–2015), we show why and how opportunities for local agency change over time, and are conditioned by local context. These findings suggest important qualifications for place-based policy approaches.