Directional regularity and metric regularity

For general constraint systems in Banach spaces, we present the directional stability theorem based on the appropriate generalization of the directional regularity condition, suggested earlier in [A. V. Arutyunov and A. F. Izmailov, Math. Oper. Res., 31 (2006), pp. 526-543]. This theorem contains Robinson's stability theorem but does not reduce to it. Furthermore, we develop the related concept of directional metric regularity which is stable subject to small Lipschitzian perturbations of the constraint mapping, and which is equivalent to directional regularity for sufficiently smooth mappings. Finally, we discuss some applications in sensitivity theory. © 2007 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.