Smart specialization policy in the European Union: relatedness, knowledge complexity and regional diversification

Pierre-Alexandre Balland, Ron Boschma (), Joan Crespo () and David Rigby
Additional contact information
Joan Crespo: LEREPS - Laboratoire d'Etude et de Recherche sur l'Economie, les Politiques et les Systèmes Sociaux - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - UT - Université de Toulouse - UT2J - Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès - UT - Université de Toulouse - Institut d'Études Politiques [IEP] - Toulouse - ENSFEA - École Nationale Supérieure de Formation de l'Enseignement Agricole de Toulouse-Auzeville
David Rigby: UCLA - University of California [Los Angeles] - UC - University of California

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: The operationalization of smart specialization policy has been rather limited because a coherent set of analytical tools to guide the policy directives remains elusive. We propose a policy framework around the concepts of relatedness and knowledge complexity. We show that diversifying into more complex technologies is attractive but difficult for European Union regions to accomplish. Regions can overcome this diversification dilemma by developing new complex technologies that build on local related capabilities. We use these findings to construct a policy framework for smart specialization that highlights the potential risks and rewards for regions of adopting competing diversification strategies.

Keywords: smart specialization; knowledge complexity; technological relatedness; regional diversification; European Union Cohesion Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-03-06
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (66)

Published in Regional Studies, 2018, 53 (9), pp.1252-1268. ⟨10.1080/00343404.2018.1437900⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Journal Article: Smart specialization policy in the European Union: relatedness, knowledge complexity and regional diversification (2019)
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:hal:journl:hal-01794372

DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2018.1437900

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().