How can regional assets capitalization add value to a modern economy? A theoretical approach

Abstract

In a world where social needs surpass the effective resources meant to meet them, in a world where social change might be triggered by false expectations, scientists have joined forces with the private and public actors in order to exploit the full potentiality encountered at the regional levels. If we make a comparison between the social levels and the regional levels we might find astonishing similarities between a reference network and a cluster because they are both networks. The similarity is relevant from the behavioural point of view because any change in the society, be it at the social, economic, cultural, political, natural level is ignited by the human factor. Territorial capital, the innovative notion that reunites the productive assets found at the level of a territory, has been placed in the light of the current research given its potential in indicating economic growth and competitive advantage at the level of a territory. Being essentially a conceptual paper, this article extends the literature by offering a theoretical perspective on the terminology needed to understand territorial capital, to discover the possibilities of creating shared value process at different regional levels and, eventually, to analyse the capitalization concept, considering it an efficiency and social change generating tool in the regional economy. This paper is intended to bring a different, original, perspective at the theoretical level through the way in which the three core concepts are analysed in a common frame. Using the qualitative research methodology and the investigation of literature as a core research method, the conclusion reached was that the above mentioned concepts are interlinked conceptually. As far as the applicability of their relationship is concerned, this paper sets just the beginning of an in-depth research of these relevant fields of study.