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Top1. Introduction
Smart specialization (S3) is a new concept that has been advanced in recent years as a strategic tool especially in Europe. It has been described to correspond to a new policy prioritization logic grounded in the entrepreneurial discovery process (McCann & Ortega-Argilés, 2013; McCann & Ortega-Argilés, 2016). It became important as an action programme adopted by the European Parliament and established by Council Decision 1600/2002/EC of 22 July 2002. The policy programme regarding the environment identified four priorities: (a) nature and biodiversity; (b) the environment and health; (c) tackling climate change; and (d) sustainable use of natural resources and the management of waste (Eurostat, 2012).
Smart specialization has been a central strategy for regional development across the European Union (EU), as a way to stimulate innovative development of the EU regions (Jucevicius & Galbougiene, 2014’2014; Dubois et al., 2017). The strategy aims to stimulate development in areas or regions that do not necessarily have the highest technological advancement, but that have specialized and have had a comparative advantage to implement innovations based on research (Foray, David, & Hall, 2009; Foray, 2015). Furthermore, the strategies for S3s assume the joint implementation of projects by enterprises and scientific entities, and therefore the existence of cooperation between these sectors in the mentioned regions for the development of innovative solutions in Europe and globally (Rusu, 2013). From this perspective, S3s need to examine innovative ecosystems characterized by links between enterprises and other sectors (e.g. business-science links) in the research and innovation process (Foray, David, & Hall, 2011). Such ecosystems are intended to have business, technological and knowledge layers – subsystems that are capable of generating new value together. However, there has been criticism of the S3 strategy. For instance, Hassink and Gong argue that: (a) “S3 is a confusing concept because it means diversification; (b) it is largely predicated on a conventional science and technology (S&T) model of innovation and regional economic development, whereas socio-ecological innovation and social innovation (SI) have only been implicitly mentioned, at best; (c) it is the continuation of cluster policies, rather than being a brand new policy instrument; (d) it offers a delusional transformative hope, although the entrepreneurial discovery process could very likely lead to lock-ins; (e) structurally weak regions may be less likely to benefit from S3; and (f) more rigorous measurements of S3 are still needed” (Hassink & Gong, 2019). Nevertheless, and as already mentioned above, smart specialization has been central in the development of European regions. According to Foray and Goenega (2013), in the EU, smart specialization is central to place-based innovation policies and can be defined by five principles: (i) granulation (the specialization policy that concentrate on activities and not sectors or firms); (ii) entrepreneurship discovery (identification and evaluation of new business opportunities); (iii) specialized diversification (awareness that the priority emerging today will not be supported forever) ; (vi) experimentalism (that there is no guarantee of success in any particular action) and (v) inclusive strategy (that smart specialization needs to be inclusive) (Foray & Goenega, 2013).