In smaller countries, the non-metropolitan regions are to a substantial degree linked togetherwith the metropolitan regions through various networks. The national infrastructure andtransport networks are often organised with the metropolitan region as the central hub. Thiscreates a number of dependencies between the metropolitan region and the non-metropolitanregions in a small country. In this paper we focus on the role that metropolitan regions playfor the renewal of the export base in the non-metropolitan regions in a small country. Theanalytical part can be divided into three main parts: i) the role of the Stockholm metropolitanregion for the renewal of the export base in the rest of Sweden between 1997 and 2003; ii)which non-metropolitan regions gain renewal of their export base; and iii) what factors canexplain the spatial distribution of these gains. The results show that distance has little to dowith the potential success of an export products diffused from Stockholm. Instead, regionalcharacteristics such as a large manufacturing sector, educational level, size of public and/oragricultural sector, and access to producer services have a larger influential potential.