scholarly journals Smart Specialisation Strategies and Regional Convergence: Spanish Extremadura after a Period of Divergence

Economies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 138
Author(s):  
Paulo Miguel Madeira ◽  
Mário Vale ◽  
Julián Mora-Aliseda
Keyword(s):  
Regional Growth ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Cohesion Policy ◽  
Convergence Region ◽  
Industrial Base ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Smart Specialisation ◽  
Growth Divergence ◽  
Programming Period ◽  
Smart Specialization

Smart specialization strategies are a new EU approach to cohesion policy, meant to deliver growth and development at EU national and regional level. Bearing in mind its focus on place-based development strategies, this paper intends to shed some light on its appropriateness to tackle uneven development and regional growth divergence. The paper showcases Spanish Extremadura growth trajectory. Extremadura is a poor region in the European context that between 2008 and 2014 diverged from the EU average, despite being eligible for EU funding as a convergence region by cohesion policy. In the 2014–2020 programming period, there was a positive dynamic at the beginning, but from 2017 onwards convergence stopped, which indicates that thematic and regional programmes have not delivered results or have not compensated for higher growth level of other Spanish regions. Moreover, research and innovation strategies for smart specialization (RIS3) seem to have limited impacts on place-based economic transformation in less developed regions. From this example, the suitability of the smart specialisation strategy as the core of cohesion policy in the programming period is discussed. It concludes that this strategy is interesting for intermediate development regions with some industrial base but does not seem appropriate as a convergence driver for poorer regions.

scholarly journals Comparative analysis of the strategic objectives of European Union for the past programming period 2007-2013 and for the current programming period 2014-2020

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 64-70
Author(s):  
Miroslav Raicov ◽  
Andrea Fehér ◽  
Tabita Adamov ◽  
Sorin Stanciu
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Life Quality ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Local Context ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Cohesion Policy ◽  
Member States ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Employment Education ◽  
Programming Period

The growing competition between different regions, thus their activities performed under both within and outside the European Union represents a fact of the "globalized" world in which we are living. For many years, the regional disparities in terms of development level and life quality were subject to national policies of the Member States. Many improvements have been observed since the European Union initiated the policy of reducing them. The Cohesion Policy of the European Union has an unique irreplaceable role in the coagulation of integrated development strategies, comprising interventions in different areas, such as infrastructure, research and innovation, employment, education, business, environment protection, climate changes and energy efficiency within a package of coherent policies addressing to regional or even local context, being one of the most visible policies, especially in what regards the relationship with citizens. Thus, the Cohesion Policy target is represented by supporting the process of reducing the disparities between the regions and Member States more developed of the European Union and the ones that are less developed.

Guest editorial on research and innovation strategies for smart specialisation in Europe

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 378-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikel Landabaso
Keyword(s):  
Innovation Management ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Smart Specialisation ◽  
Innovation Strategies

Purpose – This Special Issue of the European Journal of Innovation Management sheds new light on the burning issue of Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3), both in terms of their policy formulation and their practical implementation in the field. This new policy approach refers to the process of priority setting in national and regional research and innovation strategies in order to build “place-based” competitive advantages and help regions and countries develop an innovation-driven economic transformation agenda. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This is an important topic both in the current debate about a new industrial policy for Europe and as a policy option for a successful crisis exit strategy led by public investments in the real economy. Moreover, smart specialisation is promoted by the European Commission as an ex ante conditionality for all regions in Europe to receive European Structural and Investment Funds in the field of innovation. Thus, it has become a pre-requisite for accessing fresh funds for investing in badly needed innovation-driven productivity growth throughout the European Union (EU). Findings – The six papers in this Special Issue are the fruit of ground-breaking research and policy testing by nearly 20 leading academics and policy makers throughout the EU. They explore the early smart specialisation concept and its further developments, examine the methodological tools at its disposal and advance specific policy proposals and governance considerations based on actual experimentation in the field. Originality/value – All these make the present Special Issue of the European Journal of Innovation Management an important research milestone. This Special Issue is the fruit of a call towards the European academic and research community to help shaping and advancing the smart specialisation concept and thus contribute to better position regions and countries in the global economy through innovation-driven policies.

Assessing Regional Advantage Based on Smart Specialisation Strategies

2020 ◽  
pp. 150-179
Author(s):  
Luís Farinha ◽  
João Lopes
Keyword(s):  
Regional Growth ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Technology Commercialization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Regional Innovation ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Smart Specialisation ◽  
Regional Advantage ◽  
Smart Specialization ◽  
The Web

Making smart regions smarter through smart specialization strategies (RIS3) is today on the political and economic agenda. In this context, it becomes a priority to know the regional stakeholders' perception of RIS3, based on the prioritization of the use of resources and capacities in their territories. The aim of this study is to perform a bibliometric analysis with the keywords smart specialization, regional innovation systems, and value, rareness, imitability, and organization (VRIO). The authors aim to contribute to the clarification of the literature on regional innovation ecosystems. They also intend to suggest a new model that allows the VRIO model to be adapted to the territories. Through extensive research using the Web of Science database, five clusters were identified (multiple helix; smart specialization and RIS3; innovation and entrepreneurship; regional policies and knowledge transfer and technology commercialization; regional growth, entrepreneurial, and innovative ecosystem), whose content analysis allowed to construct the conceptual regional helix assessment model.

scholarly journals Information economy: management of educational, innovation, and research determinants

2019 ◽  
pp. 126-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serhiy Shkarlet ◽  
Nataliia Kholiavko ◽  
Maksym Dubyna
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Educational Innovation ◽  
Structural Components ◽  
Government Control ◽  
Information Economy ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Development Level ◽  
Economic Paradigm ◽  
The Government ◽  
Smart Specialization

A global trend of economic development is the transition to the formation of a new economic paradigm – the information economy. Ability to generate knowledge and innovation is a prerequisite for improving the competitiveness of the country and its regions; as well, it determines the pace of their social and economic development. In this context, the need to determine the levels of the development of the information economy and its structural components (educational, research and innovation) in the regions of the country is actualized. The purpose of the article is to develop and test a methodological toolkit for assessing the development of the information economy in terms of its structural components, that will allow for the formation of regional clusters by the intensity of educational, innovation and research components, and to identify priority vectors for stimulating the development of the information economy at the macro- and meso-economic levels. When developing methodological tools, the authors proceeded from existing methodological approaches in the world, the possibility of adapting them to national specifics, as well as the potential of statistical bases. In order to cluster the regions of Ukraine by the development level of educational, innovation and research components of the information economy, the k-means algorithm is used. The conducted cluster analysis showed that processes of the formation of the information economy in Ukraine are developing unevenly and are in the stage of formation. More regions of the state fall into the cluster of problematic regions with low levels of the development of educational, innovation and research components; leadership in the development level of the information economy is demonstrated by Kharkiv region, assigned to the cluster of regions with the intensive development of the information economy; in addition, a cluster of perspective regions with the level of the moderate development of the information economy is highlighted. The research made it possible to find out the main problems and identify areas of regional imbalances in the development of the information economy, including in terms of its structural components. In conclusions, the authors proposed directions to improve the approaches to the government control of the processes of the information economy evolvement, based on specific features of the regions, their smart specialization, actual capacities and the achieved level of the development of the information economy components.

scholarly journals COHESION POLICY INSTRUMENTS SUPPORTING TOURISM DEVELOPMENT

2019 ◽  
Vol XXI (1) ◽  
pp. 38-46
Author(s):  
Natalia Dominiak
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Cohesion Policy ◽  
Financial Perspective ◽  
Interdisciplinary Character ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Programming Period ◽  
Council Of Ministers ◽  
Empirical Material

The aim of the article is to discuss issues related to the development of tourism in the context of the possibility of financial support available from cohesion policy funds in the current financial perspective for the years 2014-2020. The particular attention was paid to the multifaceted nature of modern tourism and the directions of changes in the use of EU funds, referring to the completed programming period 2007-2013. An attempt was also made to indicate the significance of tourism in the section of the national economy of Poland and in the European Union, concentrating on its interdisciplinary character. Characteristics of cohesion policy, its goals and principles of functioning were made. The article is of a review nature, which means that the authors’ own materials and empirical material from the literature of the subject were used. The figures were obtained from reports published by the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of the Council of Ministers. It was found out that the amount of allocated funds for cohesion policy among all European Union countries in 2014-2020 is the highest for Poland and amounts to EUR 72.9 billion. There is an increase in the amount of funds allocated from the European Union to Poland, compared to the amount of allocated funds in the 2007-2013 perspective. It was also pointed out that the cohesion policy instruments mentioned above only indirectly contribute to the development of tourism, as the financing for 2014-2020 lacks programs and activities entirely dedicated to tourism.

scholarly journals Quadruple Helix Models for Sustainable Regional Innovation: Engaging and Facilitating Civil Society Participation

Economies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona Roman ◽  
Henry Varga ◽  
Vladimir Cvijanovic ◽  
Alasdair Reid
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Innovation Policy ◽  
Quadruple Helix ◽  
Regional Innovation ◽  
Innovation Research ◽  
Entrepreneurial Discovery ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Civil Society Participation ◽  
Smart Specialization ◽  
Research And Policy

Prior research has emphasized the importance of bringing together quadruple helix (QH) actors (academia, industry, government and civil society) to strengthen regional innovation. The QH model forms an integral part of European innovation policy, which aims to create sustainable and inclusive growth in Europe. As part of this policy, European Union (EU) regions are to design and implement research and innovation strategies for smart specialization (RIS3) through the participatory entrepreneurial discovery process (EDP). Despite the strong emphasis on the QH model, the model is still far from a well-established concept in innovation research and policy, and civil society participation in RIS3 has remained low. Our paper aims to support regional governments to engage with and facilitate the participation of civil society in a territorial EDP based on two case studies from Finland and Sweden. It contributes to the literature on regional innovation systems through identifying mechanisms to foster the QH model and suggests lessons learnt for the operationalization of the QH model as part of RIS3.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document