Collège du Management de la Technologie – CDMChaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation – CEMI

Smart specialisation : from academic idea to political

instrument

Dominique ForayRegions for Economic Change23-24 June, 2011 – Brussels

• The simple idea was in the air!– Regions cannot do everything in STI so

they need to focus on certain domains– They need to focus by developing

distinctive and original areas of specialisation (not by imitating each other)

Collège du Management de la Technologie – CDMChaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation – CEMI

D.Foray, P.A. David and B.Hall Smart Specialisation: the Concept

http://ec.europa.eu/research/era/publication_en.cfm

•However the simple idea implies a very complex process in practice

– Discovering the right domains of future specialisations

– Fixing the many coordination failures

•Will it work in practice?

Collège du Management de la Technologie – CDMChaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation – CEMI

Collège du Management de la Technologie – CDMChaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation – CEMI

Publicité en 1910

Lunettes Léon Jeantet

Lunettes Léon Jeantet

Publicité en 1910

Lunettes Léon Jeantet

Lunettes Léon Jeantet

Entrepreneurial discovery

Imitative entry

Policy

Structural evolution

The centrality of entrepreneurial discovery

• An essential principle• The role of entrepreneurial

knowledge• Making a clear cut distinction

between smart specialisation and the older policies

Collège du Management de la Technologie – CDMChaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation – CEMI

Collège du Management de la Technologie – CDMChaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation – CEMI

At the regional government,

we search and select our smart

specialisations

Collège du Management de la Technologie – CDMChaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation – CEMI

At the regional government,

we search and select our smart

specialisationsNO!

Imitative entry/collective emulation

• Imitative entry is desirable to generate agglomeration externalities (clusters)

• Imperfect appropriation raises a well recognized and difficult policy problems

Collège du Management de la Technologie – CDMChaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation – CEMI

Structural evolutions

• Transition• Modernisation• Diversification• Radical foundation

Collège du Management de la Technologie – CDMChaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation – CEMI

Collège du Management de la Technologie – CDMChaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation – CEMI

DiscoveryImitative entryAgglomeration externalities

Policy

Transition Modernisation Diversification Foundation

Structural evolution

What are the structural conditions and policies which will increase the likelihood of such event?

Inside the policy process

• Centrality of entrepreneurial discovery ….should not result in narrowing the scope of policy intervention

• What is top down, what is bottom up?• Policy programs fostering smart

specialisation need to be more sophisticated than thinking within the confines of this dichotomy will allow

• They call for an iterative process involving three main steps

Inside the policy process – 3 phases

• Support and possibly channels entrepreneurial discoveries in certain directions

• Monitor and assess the progress of the experiments..

Collège du Management de la Technologie – CDMChaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation – CEMI

                                            

Source: Hausman and Klinger, 2007

Occupy the rich parts of the forest where it is easier to jump to other trees

Inside the policy process – 3 phases

• Support and possibly channels entrepreneurial discoveries

• Monitor and assess the progress..and thereby disseminate and guide the formation of a shared strategic vision

• Identify and address coordination failures

Collège du Management de la Technologie – CDMChaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation – CEMI

  Step1 -Proactive policy towards an economy rich in entrepreneurial discoveries

 

Step 2 - Observation and assessment

Strategic vision

Step 3 - Coordination

Region 1

Region 2

Not all regions need to go through the three steps

Message : A specialisation strategy is smart in two senses

• This is about knowledge resources and regions need to seek not only the concentration of resources but also to do it in an orginal and rather unique area of knowledge expertise

• The policy process is complex and follows an interative logic

Collège du Management de la Technologie – CDMChaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation – CEMI

Message:What smart specialisation is not

• It is not the same thing as a cluster policy

• It is not only for the most advanced regions

• It is not about reducing diversity

Collège du Management de la Technologie – CDMChaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation – CEMI

Collège du Management de la Technologie – CDMChaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation – CEMI

Smart specialisation From academic idea to political instrument, the

surprising career of a concept and the difficulties involved in its implementation

By Dominique Foray,* Paul A. David** and Bronwyn H. Hall***

Forthcoming: