Regional assets and network switching: shifting geographies of ownership, control and capital in UK offshore oil

Bridge, Gavin; Dodge, Alexander

Abstract

Evolutionary approaches to strategic coupling show how regions harness and match assets, then negotiate their alignment with lead firms. For regions intersected by multiple networks in the same industry, however, the reconfiguration of network-territory relations can have aggregate, co-evolutionary effects that exceed coupling to a single lead firm. In such cases network switching rather than asset matching can be a primary driver of regional transformation, as assets transferred from one lead firm to another become embedded in qualitatively different production networks with contrasting power dynamics and logics of value capture. We analyse transformation in UK offshore oil to reveal three trajectories of change—in ownership, control, and capital—arising from the transfer of regional assets between different categories of lead firm; and identify simultaneous processes of globalisation and localisation in network geographies. We argue that network switching—guided by a heuristic of ‘re-territorialisation’—can complement strategic coupling.

Citation

Bridge, G., & Dodge, A. (2022). Regional assets and network switching: shifting geographies of ownership, control and capital in UK offshore oil. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsac016

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 21, 2022
• Online Publication Date: May 15, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022
• Deposit Date: May 26, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: May 26, 2022
• Journal: Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society
• Print ISSN: 1752-1378
• Electronic ISSN: 1752-1386
• Publisher: Cambridge Political Economy Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsac016