Every city, region and state wants to do better—-or at the very least, not do worse. Places have a strong and vigorous concern with and stake in generating a stronger economic performance. This concern spans a broad spectrum of constituents and interests, including business, labor, non-profit organizations, government, and private residents. However, such decision makers mandated with the strategic management of their place receive little guidance or insight from scholars in terms of a systematic framework for evaluating how to generate and sustain a competitive advantage for their place.

While an entire academic field exists devoted to analyzing how firms and organizations can create and sustain a competitive advantage and ultimately a strong economic performance—-the field of strategic management in business schools—-no such analogous field exists which is devoted to guiding and informing decision makers mandated and concerned with the strategic management of their place. Everything in Its Place seeks to fill this intellectual void, explaining the underlying economic and social factors and the broad spectrum of policies and instruments that can actually influence and enhance economic performance in places. Several academic fields have generated a number of important theories, empirical findings, and case studies that shed considerable light on identifying and unraveling the underlying forces about what shapes this economic performance. Combined in this book with the actual experiences and instincts garnered from practitioners and policy makers, these insights are integrated together in into a coherent, inclusive framework to guide and inform thought leaders and scholars in the strategic management of places.