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The Role of Smart Specialization Promoting Sustainable and Inclusive Growth...
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The Role of Smart Specialization Promoting Sustainable and Inclusive Growth – Towards RIS2.0

A special issue of Economies (ISSN 2227-7099).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2021) | Viewed by 16949

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Luís Carvalho

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Guest Editor
School of Economics and Business and Centre of Studies in Geography and Spatial Planning, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
Interests: economic geography; geography of knowledge and innovation
Dr. Joana Costa

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Guest Editor
Department of Economics, Management and Industrial Engineering and Tourism, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
Interests: innovation; entrepreneurship; technology transfer; quantitative methods; innovation ecosystems; sustainability; sustainable growth; sustainability-oriented innovation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As the European strategy for growth and jobs—Europe 2020—comes to an end, new objectives are being devised for the 2030 horizon. Yet economic divergence across European regions has been the rule, and the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis threatens to amplify the situation. At the same time, the last decade has seen significant policy innovation in Europe with the implementation of so-called smart specialization strategies (RIS3), under which regions were challenged to identify and stimulate innovative capacities and growth potentials. The end of Europe 2020, along with the urgent need for expansionary actions for the post-COVID-19 reality, is a critical moment to assess the effectiveness, outcomes and lessons from RIS3 and the eventual adjustments needed to tackle contemporary challenges. This Special Issue thus seeks to stimulate discussion around questions such as the following: Is RIS3 providing the expected results? What unexpected outcomes can be identified? Is the European innovation system evolving towards sustainability, and if so, how? What are some touchstones through which growth can be ignited in lagging regions? What actions should be taken to promote smart, inclusive and sustainable growth? How will industrial and labor markets adapt to the new context? Should patterns of consumption become more frugal? How can we nurture sustainable innovation ecosystems at the regional level?

Dr. Luís Carvalho
Dr. Joana Costa
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Economies is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • smart specialization 
  • convergence 
  • sustainable growth 
  • inclusive growth 
  • innovation ecosystems

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 310 KiB  
Article
Unveiling Entrepreneurial Ecosystems’ Transformation: A GEM Based Portrait
by Mariana Pita, Joana Costa and António Carrizo Moreira
Economies 2021, 9(4), 186; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/economies9040186 - 29 Nov 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2847
Abstract
Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (EEs) have attracted the attention of academics, practitioners, and policymakers, that attempt to unlock ‘a winning recipe’ considering the different EEs pillars in order to ignite entrepreneurship at large. Therefore, understanding the degree of influence of each pillar on Entrepreneurial Initiative [...] Read more.
Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (EEs) have attracted the attention of academics, practitioners, and policymakers, that attempt to unlock ‘a winning recipe’ considering the different EEs pillars in order to ignite entrepreneurship at large. Therefore, understanding the degree of influence of each pillar on Entrepreneurial Initiative (EI) is helpful in framing more effective policies towards entrepreneurship. This study aims to bring a new facet to entrepreneurship research, specifically on decomposing the transformation of EEs and the influence of EEs pillars on EI. The transformation of EEs is shown by a balanced panel approach based on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) dataset over 8 years (2010–2017), comprising 18 countries. The study has several implications for entrepreneurship theory and practice as well as public policy since discusses three main issues, mainly supported by empirical results. First, the results show an unbalanced influence of EEs pillars on EI. Second, results also show the ineffectiveness of institutions in encouraging the desire to act entrepreneurially. Third, entrepreneurship needs to be part of the acculturation process evidencing the importance of collective normative. Therefore, providing the instruments and structures is not enough to encourage individuals to start an entrepreneurial journey. Generally, the results reveal that contextual determinants are significant in fostering entrepreneurial propensity to start a business. But the impact of the nine pillars is not equalized, revealing a fragmented influence with funding measures, R&D transfer, and cultural and social norms discouraging entrepreneurial initiative. Overall, the study contributes to the understanding of a multidimensional perspective on EEs and points future policy directions to overcome the lack of entrepreneurship and amend flawed entrepreneurship policies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Smart Specialization Promoting Sustainable and Inclusive Growth – Towards RIS2.0)
20 pages, 362 KiB  
Article
Effects of Foreign Trade on the Economic Performance of Industries—Evidence from Wood Processing Industry of Czechia and Slovakia
by Andrea Sujová, Ľubica Simanová, Václav Kupčák, Jarmila Schmidtová and Adriana Lukáčiková
Economies 2021, 9(4), 180; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/economies9040180 - 16 Nov 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 7040
Abstract
As was first stressed by the classical economists Adam Smith and David Ricardo, international trade plays a crucial role in the growth process. The paper aims to analyze the influence of foreign trade on economic performance in the wood processing industry (WPI) of [...] Read more.
As was first stressed by the classical economists Adam Smith and David Ricardo, international trade plays a crucial role in the growth process. The paper aims to analyze the influence of foreign trade on economic performance in the wood processing industry (WPI) of Czechia and Slovakia. The multivariate regression method (MLR), assumption tests for MLR models, and Granger causality test were applied to identify association between foreign trade economic performance, and indicators were formed to measure the effects of foreign trade at the industry level. The Granger test revealed the unidirectional causality in the Slovak WPI and bidirectional causality in the Czech WPI. The results revealed that the net export growth has a positive effect on the economic performance of the industry, but only if the growth in imports is lower than in exports. The balanced trade balance indicated no influence of foreign trade on economic performance. The paper contributes to existing knowledge with indicators for evaluation of foreign trade effects on the performance of the industry. The paper also brings new empirical knowledge in trade balance effects on the economic performance of industries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Smart Specialization Promoting Sustainable and Inclusive Growth – Towards RIS2.0)
19 pages, 343 KiB  
Article
Smart Specialisation Strategies and Regional Convergence: Spanish Extremadura after a Period of Divergence
by Paulo Miguel Madeira, Mário Vale and Julián Mora-Aliseda
Economies 2021, 9(4), 138; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/economies9040138 - 27 Sep 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1745
Abstract
Smart specialization strategies are a new EU approach to cohesion policy, meant to deliver growth and development at EU national and regional level. Bearing in mind its focus on place-based development strategies, this paper intends to shed some light on its appropriateness to [...] Read more.
Smart specialization strategies are a new EU approach to cohesion policy, meant to deliver growth and development at EU national and regional level. Bearing in mind its focus on place-based development strategies, this paper intends to shed some light on its appropriateness to tackle uneven development and regional growth divergence. The paper showcases Spanish Extremadura growth trajectory. Extremadura is a poor region in the European context that between 2008 and 2014 diverged from the EU average, despite being eligible for EU funding as a convergence region by cohesion policy. In the 2014–2020 programming period, there was a positive dynamic at the beginning, but from 2017 onwards convergence stopped, which indicates that thematic and regional programmes have not delivered results or have not compensated for higher growth level of other Spanish regions. Moreover, research and innovation strategies for smart specialization (RIS3) seem to have limited impacts on place-based economic transformation in less developed regions. From this example, the suitability of the smart specialisation strategy as the core of cohesion policy in the programming period is discussed. It concludes that this strategy is interesting for intermediate development regions with some industrial base but does not seem appropriate as a convergence driver for poorer regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Smart Specialization Promoting Sustainable and Inclusive Growth – Towards RIS2.0)
15 pages, 713 KiB  
Article
The Impact of Economic Specialization on Regional Economic Development in the European Union: Insights for Formation of Smart Specialization Strategy
by Giedrė Dzemydaitė
Economies 2021, 9(2), 76; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/economies9020076 - 13 May 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4474
Abstract
The smart specialization concept was implemented in the EU in 2014, stating that regions have to specify specialization areas for development of innovations. Economic specialization reveals a comparative advantage in that field. However, there are different arguments linking specialization to economic development. This [...] Read more.
The smart specialization concept was implemented in the EU in 2014, stating that regions have to specify specialization areas for development of innovations. Economic specialization reveals a comparative advantage in that field. However, there are different arguments linking specialization to economic development. This study analyzes these arguments and aims to investigate the impact of economic specialization on regional economic development and to give insights into identifying prospective areas in regional economies. A panel fixed effect estimation of industry-level regional data suggests that economic specialization in broader regional employment, called relative specialization, is ambiguously associated with economic development. Our findings suggest that neither economic specialization nor economic diversity are a clear-cut solution for ensuring economic growth. Economic structure in EU regions differs, and there is no one answer for which approach is better for economic development. Specialization measures, particularly the location quotient, cannot fully capture the dynamics in the industry structure that could be essential for formation of regional development strategy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Smart Specialization Promoting Sustainable and Inclusive Growth – Towards RIS2.0)
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