Smart Specialisation on the move: reflections on six years of implementation and prospects for the future

Gianelle, Carlo; Kyriakou, Dimitris; McCann, Philip; Morgan, Kevin

doi:10.1080/00343404.2020.1817364

Cited by 44 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…By tackling this research question, the research objective of the current article also contributes to the Blue Growth Strategy for the BSR (European Commission, 2017) and the European Green Deal of the European Commission (COM/2019/640 final) by improving the conditions for the competitiveness of small and medium-sized ports. Hence, the conducted research supports European Blue Economy in line with Regional Innovation Strategies on Smart Specialisation (RIS3), which is also seen as a crucial policy approach for the implementation of the EU Green Deal (Gianelle et al, 2020;Larosse et al, 2020). Besides research and development as well as networking, training is seen as a key enabling procedure to foster and implement the smart specialisation approach (Prause, 2014), underlining the importance of this research article and its impact on the Baltic Sea and European development.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 55%

Cross-Border Capacity-Building for Port Ecosystems in Small and Medium-Sized Baltic Ports

Meyer

Gerlitz

Henesey

2021

TalTech Journal of European Studies

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One of the key challenges related to the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic is preservation of employment and protecting staff who are working in port operations and struggling to keep ports operating for ship calls. These activities performed by port labour are deemed to be crucial for the EU and European ports, since 75% of the EU external trade and 30% of intra-EU transport goods are moved by waterborne transport. As a response to the global lockdown and the vulnerability of global supply chains, the majority of international organisations and maritime ports networks have shortlisted measures necessary to keep the severe effects of the lockdown to a minimum. One of the key measures identified is how to limit physical interaction. As an effect, millions of people and organisations across the globe have had to use and/or increase their deployment of digital technologies, such as digital documentation, tracing information systems and digital group-working platforms. Hence, blockchain and data-enabling systems have become to be recognised as a core element maintaining the uninterrupted flow of goods and services at ports. In pursuing uninterrupted trade and keeping ports open and running, this research paper addresses how the current situation afflicts the small and medium-sized ports located on the Baltic Sea which are argued to be critical actors of the port-centric logistics’ ecosystem. Given the topicality of this research and addressing the research gap, the authors suggest a conceptual capacity-building framework for port employees. This suggested framework is based on empirical insights: primary and secondary data collected from the project Connect2SmallPorts, part-financed by the Interreg South Baltic Programme 2014–2020 from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The conceptual framework aims towards a practical training programme dedicated to fill in the missing skills or expand the limited competence of human resources and ports’ capacity when adapting or advancing digitalisation in the ports’ ecosystems. In particular, specific areas of capacity building are addressed and individual solutions suggested to foster a digital transformation of ports. The conceptual training framework is designed as a training tool indicating opportunities to help ports upgrade their competences with the blockchain technology, and to advance their transportation, environmental and economic performance with improved digitalisation. For this purpose, the conducted research employed mixed methods and applied concepts and approaches based on the field of management. For example, the construct of absorptive capacity, organisational learning, transformation, resource-based view and the concept of dynamic capabilities are included in the ecosystem discourse and are linked with open innovation and service design. The research presented in this article provides both theoretical and practical contributions, in which the affected stakeholders can test and utilise the developed tool as well as transfer it to other regions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 55%

Cross-Border Capacity-Building for Port Ecosystems in Small and Medium-Sized Baltic Ports

Meyer

Gerlitz

Henesey

2021

TalTech Journal of European Studies

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“…This is the case, among others, of Partridge, Rickman, Rose Olfert and Tan (2013), Varga (2017), Magro and Wilson (2019), Blomi and Erlich (2020). Finally, studies that analyze the particular case of the application of specific public policy instruments aimed at the implementation of place-based policies -such as the regional smart specialisation strategies -and where the work of, among others, Neto, Serrano and Santos (2018), Gianelle, Guzzo and Mieszkowski (2020), Gianelle, Kyriakou, McCann and Morgan (2020), Neto and Santos (2020), Trippl, Zukauskaite and Healy (2020), Veldhuizen (2020), is contained.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

EU Cohesion Policy post-2020, European Green Deal and Territorial Agenda 2030. The future of the place-based approach in the new EU policy framework in the context of COVID-19

Neto

2020

Eur. XXI

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The European Union’s strategic priorities for the post-2020 period – focused on areas such as globalization, demography, migration, climate change, security and defense, employment and digitalization of the economy and society – pose relevant challenges as to the feasibility of its territorialization conditions and how to ensure operationalization at regional and local levels. As the EU prepares to implement the Cohesion Policy 2021-2027 and draw up the Territorial Agenda 2030, it also seeks to relaunch the EU policy framework in areas such as sustainable development, artificial intelligence and reindustrialization, examples of which are: European Green Deal, EU Circular Economy Action Plan and EU Digital Strategy. The current context of the COVID-19 pandemic has, however, forced a refocusing of the intervention priorities, at least in the short term, in the need to respond to the urgent economic, social and public health challenges caused by the pandemic. This article seeks to analyse, on the one hand, how the European policy cycle has adapted to respond to the pandemic, and on the other, the extent to which the place-based approach, one of the central operating rationales of the 2014-2020 financial perspective, may see its role strengthened and its performance extended as a consequence of the changes introduced in the current phase of the policy cycle due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis carried out led to concluding that the current context of COVID-19 is implying the redesign of many of the Union’s public policy instruments and reordering some of the current strategic priorities. It is also changing the conditions of resilience and competitiveness of territories, whereby the place-based approach seems to be a public policy instrument especially suited to the process of economic and social recovery at the local and regional level.

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“…Having defined specializations was also a condition for applying for and benefiting from European funds, which forced many regions to carry out entrepreneurial discovery processes in a copycat fashion (Di Cataldo et al, 2021). These processes themselves led by the regions has been ambiguously evaluated in the literature (D'Adda et al, 2019;Gianelle et al, 2020a;2020b;Iacobucci and Guzzini, 2016), with better and worse practices found, such as too much routine in a number of underdeveloped regions, or novel approaches in southern regions (Kroll, 2015). Assessments of SS's effectiveness in inducing regional development have also been equivocal, pointing to concerns about translating theory into practice (Gianelle et al, 2020a;McCann and Ortega-Argilés, 2015; and the much longer time frame for achieving strategy goals (Klikocka, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Related Variety of Regional Smart Specialization Strategies

Pylak¹,

Warowny²

2021

ERSJ

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Purpose:The paper seeks to find the related variety of smart specialization strategies in European regions. Design/Methodology/Approach: We apply the product space methodology of Hidalgo et al. (2007) to identify the most frequent occurrences of specialization in industry, scientific or policy domains in regional innovation strategies and construct a matrix of their cooccurrences. Findings: Although to some extent regions utilize unrelated variety, i.e., homogeneous industry sections, scientific or policy domains, most regions benefit from cross-linkages between sections and domains (related variety). This latter variety may be grouped into two interconnected domains: (1) quality of life and well-being, including high-tech products that facilitate various spheres of social and economic life; (2) sustainable urban development with smart cities, green transportation, and energy conservation and effectiveness. Practical Implications: Tracing the related variety of smart specializations may facilitate an understanding of the localization and urbanization economies that benefit regions and the mechanisms behind entrepreneurial discovery processes. Moreover, the results can show the extent to which regions can differentiate themselves from others. Originality/Value: The product space methodology has not been applied to smart specializations to date. Based on this methodology and network analysis, the study provides the most common related varieties present in regional strategy documents, which can be analyzed in more detail in future research.

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Smart Specialisation on the move: reflections on six years of implementation and prospects for the future

Abstract: This editorial is structured as follows. The next section provides a brief introduction to the genesis of the Smart Specialisation policy. The third section describes the content of the contributions included in the special issue.

Cited by 44 publications

References 8 publications

Cross-Border Capacity-Building for Port Ecosystems in Small and Medium-Sized Baltic Ports

Cross-Border Capacity-Building for Port Ecosystems in Small and Medium-Sized Baltic Ports

EU Cohesion Policy post-2020, European Green Deal and Territorial Agenda 2030. The future of the place-based approach in the new EU policy framework in the context of COVID-19

Related Variety of Regional Smart Specialization Strategies

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