This article assesses the network robustness of the technological capability base of 269 European metropolitan areas against the potential elimination of some of their capabilities. By doing so, it provides systematic evidence on how network robustness conditioned the economic resilience of these regions in the context of the 2008 economic crisis. The analysis concerns calls in the relevant literature for more in-depth analysis on the link between regional economic network structures and the resilience of regions to economic shocks. By adopting a network science approach that is novel to economic geographic inquiry, the objective is to stress test the technological resilience of regions by utilizing information on the coclassification of CPC (Cooperative Patent Classification) classes listed on European Patent Office patent documents. We find that European metropolitan areas show heterogeneous levels of technology network robustness. Further findings from regression analysis indicate that metropolitan regions with a more robust technological knowledge network structure exhibit higher levels of resilience with respect to changes in employment rates. This finding is robust to various random and targeted elimination strategies concerning the most frequently combined technological capabilities. Regions with high levels of employment in industry but with a vulnerable technological capacity base are particularly challenged by this aspect of regional economic resilience.

This paper examines how gamification affects user intention to use mobile healthcare applications (mHealth) and how the effect of gamification works differently according to health status, age, and gender. We use data from a mobile survey conducted by a Korean representative survey agency. We estimate the effect of gamification on user intention to use mobile healthcare applications based on a structural equation model and examine the moderating effects of self-reported health status, age, and gender. We find that gamification is effective in increasing user intention to use mHealth, especially in the healthy and younger groups. These findings suggest that mHealth, with the gamification factor, would encourage healthy (but lack exercise) people as well as unhealthy people to maintain their health status, and thus the mHealth developers need to consider the gamification factor when they develop mHealth services for healthy people.

Regional knowledge spaces are heterogeneous, and the structure of these knowledge spaces can play a significant role in shaping regional economic performances during economic downturns. This article explores the relationship between a region’s technological profile and its resilience to exogenous shocks. To identify the determinants of regional economic resilience, we perform panel analyses of EU 15 NUTS II level data covering the years before and after the 2008 financial crisis. The most significant results are that, beyond pure diversification effects, regions endowed with technologically coherent capabilities adapted better in times of economic downturn, and that resilience is influenced by a region’s capacity to generate new growth paths. These findings deepen our understanding of the evolution of regional economies and have relevant implications for the design of appropriate regional development policy instruments.