Something new: Where do new industries come from?

Emerging industries have great potential for both entrepreneurship and regional transformation. The emergent earliest stage of the industry lifecycle is when there is the greatest potential and when local factors matter most, however, we typically can only identify new industries in retrospect. This chapter provides an overview of the transformative potential of emerging industries and considers the challenges associated with studying emerging industries in real time. The chapter considers the regional context for studying new industries and offers a set of regional factors that might promote the emergence of new industries.