Medium size cities economic development and regional competitiveness: the case of Larissa – Volos dipole in Thessaly region of Greece

The main purpose of this article is to investigate the relation between cities’ economic development (local level) and regions’ competitiveness (regional level) in the region of Thessaly, Greece (the Larissa – Volos dipole case - study). The last fifteen years almost fifty non - local enterprises have established new plants or have expanded their business activities to Thessaly region and especially around the cities of Larissa and Volos (eastern Thessaly). The first issue that this article investigates concerns the reasons for this agglomeration. The second issue has to do with the contribution of enterprises to the cities’ development and to the region’s competitiveness as a whole. The third issue concerns enterprises’ decision analysis process to establish business activities in Thessaly region and the role of place marketing policies supporting this decision. Finally the article provides suggestions and particular development strategies for the strengthening of the Thessaly region’s competitiveness through the economic development of the Larissa - Volos dipole.