Publications

Articles in refereed journals

• Benner, M. (2025). Imaginaries: The ideational foundation of sustainability transitions. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, DOI: 10.1111/tesg.70003.
• Benner, M. (2025). Multiple-challenge regional industrial transitions: The example of chemical regions. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 55, 100971.
• Lehmann, T., Benner, M., Kapo, A. (2025). Institutional asymmetries in a low-coordination economy: The smart specialization paradox in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 38, 855-883.
• Benner, M., Trippl, M., Hassink, R. (2024). Sustainable and inclusive development in left-behind places. Review of Regional Research, 44, 237-249.
• Benner, M. (2024). An ideational turn in economic geography? Progress in Economic Geography, 2, 100014.
• Benner, M. (2024). System-level agency and its many shades: Path development in a multidimensional innovation system. Regional Studies, 58, 238-251.
• Benner, M., Shilo, S. (2024). Discourse as a carrier of history: Wine tourism in the Negev and its evolution. European Planning Studies, 32, 739-759.
• Trippl, M., Benner, M., Baumgartinger-Seiringer, S. (2024). Regionale Innovations- und Wirtschaftspolitik in Zeiten transformativen Wandels: Der CORIS-Ansatz als Orientierungsrahmen. Standort, 48, 286-292.
• Benner, M. (2023). Making spatial evolution work for all? A framework for inclusive path development. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 16, 445-462.
• Benner, M. (2023). Revisiting path-as-process: Agency in a discontinuity-development model. European Planning Studies, 31, 1119-1138.
• Giustolisi, A., Benner, M., Trippl, M. (2023). Smart specialisation strategies: Towards an outward looking approach. European Planning Studies, 31, 738-757.
• Benner, M. (2022). Legitimizing path development by interlinking institutional logics: The case of Israel’s desert tourism. Local Economy, 37, 564-583.
• Benner, M. (2022). An institutionalist perspective on smart specialization: Towards a political economy of regional innovation policy. Science and Public Policy, 49, 878-889.
• Reiner, C., Benner, M. (2022). Cooperation bias in regional policy: Is competition neglected? Annals of Regional Science, 69, 187-221.
• Benner, M. (2022). A tale of sky and desert: Translation and imaginaries in transnational windows of institutional opportunity. Geoforum, 128, 181-191.
• Benner, M. (2022). Retheorizing industrial-institutional coevolution: A multidimensional perspective. Regional Studies, 56, 1524-1537.
• Haddad, C., Benner, M. (2021). Situating innovation policy in Mediterranean Arab countries: A research agenda for context sensitivity. Research Policy, 50, 104273.
• Benner, M. (2020). Six additional questions about smart specialization: Implications for regional innovation policy 4.0. European Planning Studies, 28,1667-1684.
• Benner, M. (2020). Mitigating human agency in regional development: The behavioural side of policy processes. Regional Studies, Regional Science, 7, 164-182.
• Benner, M. (2020). The decline of tourist destinations: An evolutionary perspective on overtourism. Sustainability, 12, 3653.
• Benner, M. (2020). Overcoming overtourism in Europe: Towards an institutional-behavioral research agenda. Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsgeographie, 64, 74-87.
• Benner, M. (2020). The spatial evolution-institution link and its challenges for regional policy. European Planning Studies, 28, 2428-2446.
• Benner, M. (2020). Tourism in the context of smart specialization: The example of Montenegro. Current Issues in Tourism, 23, 2624-2630.
• Benner, M. (2019). Smart specialization and institutional context: The role of institutional discovery, change and leapfrogging. European Planning Studies, 27, 1791-1810.
• Benner, M. (2019). Industrial policy in the EU and its neighbourhood: Learning from policy experimentation. Economies, 7, 44.
• Benner, M. (2017). From clusters to smart specialization: Tourism in institution-sensitive regional development policies. Economies, 5, 26.
• Lehmann, T., Benner, M. (2015). Cluster policy in the light of institutional context – a comparative study of transition countries. Administrative Sciences, 5, 188-212.
• Benner, M. (2014). From smart specialisation to smart experimentation: Building a new theoretical framework for regional policy of the European Union. Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsgeographie, 58, 33-49.

Monographs

• Benner, M. (2020). A new Arab social contract? Institutional perspectives for economic growth in Arab countries. Cham: Springer.
• Benner, M. (2012). Clusterpolitik: Wege zur Verknüpfung von Theorie und politischer Umsetzung (Cluster policy: ways to link theory and political implementation). Münster: LIT.

Book chapters

• Trippl, M., Benner, M. (2025). Climate-changed economic geography. In: Aoyama, Y., Haberly, D., Horner, R., Schindler, S. (eds.), A research agenda for economic geography: Reframing 21st century capitalism. Cheltenham, Northampton: Edward Elgar, 131-143.
• Benner, M. (2020). Cluster policy in Tunisia: From institutional voids to smart specialization. In: Gutowski, A., Hassan, N.M., Knedlik, T., Ngo Tong, C.M., Wohlmuth, K. (eds.), Science, technology and innovation policies for inclusive growth in Africa: Human skills development and country cases. African Development Perspectives Yearbook, Vol. 21. Münster: LIT, 319-346.
• Benner, M. (2017). Smart specialisation and cluster emergence: Building blocks for evolutionary regional policies. In: Fornahl, D., Hassink, R. (eds.), The life cycle of clusters: A policy perspective. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 151-172.
• Benner, M. (2017). The legacy of Sidi Bouzid: Overcoming spatial inequalities in Tunisia. In: Křížek, D., Záhořík, J. (eds.), Beyond the ‘Arab spring’ in North Africa: Macro and micro perspectives. Lanham: Lexington, 47-65.
• Benner, M. (2015). Europa und der Maghreb: Von der Nachbarschaft zur Wirtschaftspartnerschaft (Europe and the Maghreb: From neighborhood to economic partnership). In: Neuss, B., Nötzold, A. (eds.), The Southern Mediterranean: Challenges to the European foreign and security policy. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 57-82.

Technical reports

• Radovanovic, N., Benner, M. (2019). Smart specialisation and the wider innovation policy context in the Western Balkans. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.