The “More Means More†Assumption: Congruence Versus Contingency in Local Economic Development Research

This article focuses on the conceptual and methodological foundation of local development policy adoption studies. It reexamines the prevailing supposition of congruence between context and policy and revisits the accepted rationale for choosing particular policies by introducing a performance component into the model. From this perspective, policy adoption is not determined purely by external circumstances—the lesson of studies that find a congruent link between context and policy—but such adoption is also strategic. By using a data set used in similar research, a contingency model indicates that the economic development policy adoption patterns of cities can be explained in terms of the proper fit between the policy and the local economic context. Because the pursuit of effective economic development policies is a significant factor in policy adoption, the model presented here is an applicable alternative to the standard congruence research approach offered in the literature.