Analytical and Synthetic Phases of Path Development Knowledge Bases and The Evolution of Swedish Textile Industry: The Case of Borås

Abstract: The questions of how regions develop over time and new regional growth paths emerge have been widely investigated by economic geographers. This study, with a wide understanding regarding the role of history, enhances our perception on how evolution process acts and what type of dynamics are influential to create a new path development by unfolding the different characteristics of development phases given to the knowledge base approach. The theoretical framework built upon the knowledge base approach and the notion of regional industrial path development has been applied to the textile industry in Borås. The study concludes that, for the case of Borås, the evolution of the historical conditions into new technologies -high value-added products- has triggered the emergence of the new path within smart textiles which has been enabled by the inflow of analytical form of knowledge into the synthetic knowledge base. Several key actors and endogenous and exogenous triggering events have influenced and changed the development pattern of regional industry.