Science, technology, and innovation for economic competitiveness: The role of smart specialization in less-developed countries
Science, technology, and innovation for economic competitiveness: The role of smart specialization in less-developed countries
Smart specialization (SS) is a policy concept that has gained significant momentum in Europe despite a frail theoretical background and implementation difficulties. These challenges become critical in the case of less-developed economies that often lack regional autonomy, a strong STI base, and local capabilities to identify and sustain such SS strategies. Combining elements from evolutionary economics and the export-led literature, I propose a framework that anchors the role of SS in the national innovation policy of such laggards, as a complementary avenue for improving competitiveness and growth. Moreover, to assist policy makers in lagging regions or countries, I advance a diagnostic tool to identify potential areas for SS, and also address the systemic and the regional-sectoral bottlenecks in these domains. I exemplify the use of this tool in the case of Bulgaria by using a large battery of quantitative and qualitative indicators from publicly available data. This type of investigation may be useful for other less-developed economies to kick-start this process and identify prima facie SS candidates.
95-107
Krammer, Marius
24ce872e-5044-4846-bb35-88e12c74c854
19 September 2017
Krammer, Marius
24ce872e-5044-4846-bb35-88e12c74c854
Krammer, Marius
(2017)
Science, technology, and innovation for economic competitiveness: The role of smart specialization in less-developed countries.
Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 123, .
(doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2017.06.028).
Abstract
Smart specialization (SS) is a policy concept that has gained significant momentum in Europe despite a frail theoretical background and implementation difficulties. These challenges become critical in the case of less-developed economies that often lack regional autonomy, a strong STI base, and local capabilities to identify and sustain such SS strategies. Combining elements from evolutionary economics and the export-led literature, I propose a framework that anchors the role of SS in the national innovation policy of such laggards, as a complementary avenue for improving competitiveness and growth. Moreover, to assist policy makers in lagging regions or countries, I advance a diagnostic tool to identify potential areas for SS, and also address the systemic and the regional-sectoral bottlenecks in these domains. I exemplify the use of this tool in the case of Bulgaria by using a large battery of quantitative and qualitative indicators from publicly available data. This type of investigation may be useful for other less-developed economies to kick-start this process and identify prima facie SS candidates.
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Accepted/In Press date: 27 June 2017
e-pub ahead of print date: 10 July 2017
Published date: 19 September 2017
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Local EPrints ID: 497806
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/497806
ISSN: 0040-1625
PURE UUID: a306b03d-5659-45c4-bd25-2bd5ea09ff21
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Date deposited: 31 Jan 2025 17:58
Last modified: 01 Feb 2025 03:19
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Marius Krammer
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