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Smart specialization and place leadership: dreaming about shared visions, falling into policy traps?

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  • Markku Sotarauta

Abstract

The concept of smart specialization has rapidly acquired a central position in European policy and academic circles. It raises interesting challenges for the regional studies agenda. First, smart specialization is about not only policy formulation, implementation and evaluation but also pooling scattered resources, competencies and powers to serve both shared and individual ambitions. Thus, policy formulation and implementation need to be seen in a new light. Second, when smart specialization is seen as one of the platforms for aligning several actors to boost regional economic development, the need to understand agency in its multiplicity emerges as central. This paper argues that to achieve truly transformative smart specialization strategies, there is a need to investigate in more depth the multi-actor strategy processes and new forms of leadership, as well as to invest time and money in advancing related capabilities across European regions.

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  • Markku Sotarauta, 2018. "Smart specialization and place leadership: dreaming about shared visions, falling into policy traps?," Regional Studies, Regional Science, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(1), pages 190-203, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rsrsxx:v:5:y:2018:i:1:p:190-203
    DOI: 10.1080/21681376.2018.1480902
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    Cited by:

    1. Maximilian Benner, 2021. "System-level agency and its many shades: How to shape the system for path development?," PEGIS geo-disc-2021_10, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    2. Fil Kristensen, Iryna & Pugh, Rhiannon & Grillitsch, Markus, 2022. "Leadership and governance challenges in delivering place-based transformation through smart specialisation: Insights and policy implications from a metropolitan innovation leader region," Papers in Innovation Studies 2022/6, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    3. Moritz Breul, 2023. "Unpacking smart specialization strategies: how collective policy-making processes shape the direction of regional strategies," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2320, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2023.
    4. Ron Boschma, 2021. "Designing Smart Specialization Policy: relatedness, unrelatedness, or what?," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2128, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2021.
    5. Maximilian Benner, 2021. "Revisiting path-as-process: A railroad track model of path development, transformation, and agency," PEGIS geo-disc-2021_09, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    6. Ricard Esparza-Masana, 2022. "Towards Smart Specialisation 2.0. Main Challenges When Updating Strategies," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(1), pages 635-655, March.
    7. Maximilian Benner, 2022. "An institutionalist perspective on smart specialization: Towards a political economy of regional innovation policy [Place-based Policy and Politics]," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 49(6), pages 878-889.
    8. Joanna Kudelko & Katarzyna Zmija & Dariusz Zmija, 2022. "Regional smart specialisations in the light of dynamic changes in the employment structure: the case of a region in Poland," Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 17(1), pages 133-171, March.
    9. Robert Hassink & Matthias Kiese, 2021. "Solving the restructuring problems of (former) old industrial regions with smart specialization? Conceptual thoughts and evidence from the Ruhr," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 41(2), pages 131-155, October.
    10. Maximilian Benner, 2022. "Legitimizing path development by interlinking institutional logics: The case of Israel's desert tourism," PEGIS geo-disc-2022_01, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    11. László Szerb & Raquel Ortega‐Argilés & Zoltan J. Acs & Éva Komlósi, 2020. "Optimizing entrepreneurial development processes for smart specialization in the European Union," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(5), pages 1413-1457, October.
    12. Biagi, Bianca & Brandano, Maria Giovanna & Ortega-Argiles, Raquel, 2021. "Smart specialisation and tourism: Understanding the priority choices in EU regions," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    13. Miren Larrea & Miren Estensoro & Martina Pertoldi, 2019. "Multilevel governance for smart specialisation: basic pillars for its construction," JRC Research Reports JRC116076, Joint Research Centre.
    14. Grillitsch, Markus & Coenen, Lars & Morgan, Kevin, 2023. "Directionality and Subsidiarity: A Regional Policy for People and Planet," Papers in Innovation Studies 2023/1, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    15. Maximilian Benner, 2021. "A tale of sky and desert: Translation and imaginaries in transnational windows of institutional opportunity," PEGIS geo-disc-2021_08, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    16. Michaela Trippl & Elena Zukauskaite & Adrian Healy, 2018. "Shaping Smart Specialisation: The Role of Place-Specific Factors in Advanced, Intermediate and Less-Developed European Regions," PEGIS geo-disc-2018_01, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.

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