Caught Between Metropolises: The Smart Specialisation Challenge in Poland’s Lubusz Region

Tymon Ostrouch ()
Additional contact information
Tymon Ostrouch: Department of Regional Policy, Institute of Economics and Finance, University of Zielona Góra, 65-246 Zielona Góra, Poland

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 14, 1-18

Abstract: This article examines the relevance of Smart Specialisation Strategies (RIS3) in structurally weak but non-peripheral regions, using Poland’s Lubusz Voivodeship as a case study. Based on employment data from 2009 and 2021, this study uses Location Quotient (LQ) analysis to evaluate the alignment between the region’s economic structure and its RIS3 domains: Innovative Industry, Health and Quality of Life, and Green Economy. The findings show that while Innovative Industry and Health and Quality of Life strengthened their relative specialisation, the Green Economy domain made only limited progress. Notably, sectors such as metal fabrication and social care services emerged as new specialisations, while several traditional industries declined. These results support the hypothesis that RIS3 priorities only partially reflect endogenous economic strengths, and they highlight the challenges of implementing innovation strategies in territorially fragmented and capacity-constrained regions. This article calls for dynamic priority reviews, improved multi-level coordination, and targeted instruments to better align RIS3 frameworks with the structural realities of “in-between” regions in the EU.

Keywords: smart specialisation; structurally weak regions; Location Quotient; regional innovation policy; Lubusz Voivodeship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/14/6270/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/14/6270/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:14:p:6270-:d:1697510

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().