The overall focus of the programme is on the importance of regional economy for business and industry and vice versa. This implies that the programme has a double perspective with two main focus areas. One area is the issue of ensuring a strong regional development in terms of economics performance as a part of a fertile environment for business and industry. Being situated in markets that provide opportunities for business is accordingly a crucial aspect. Such market developments are associated with long-run growth revealing the strategic importance of specific markets in different parts of the world. This brings in the second perspective to design policies and strategies to ensure such strong development, i.e. regional business and development strategies. This area is therefore highly associated with policy design and effects of policies. A question in that respect is e.g. what kind of policies can be expected to further market development in different regions? Furthermore the area is associated with location choices of firms and market access. What are the determinants of firm location choices? How should firms use differences in regional settings in their choices of locating in different parts of the world and therein which regions in such different parts of the world. Locating in some context must take into account both potentials in a given region, but also the advantages or disadvantages of the neighbourhood of the region. This is e.g. associated with supply-chain management in Business Administration and other geographically related market issues. The programme provides both theoretical perspectives and offers concrete empirical tools to uncover such structures of locating in different market surroundings.