Understanding smart specialisation

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

Understanding smart specialisation

Dominique ForayKEEN Regions – final conference

Brussels – 17th April, 2012

1 - Introduction

• Into what domain, what activity, a region would benefit from and should specialize in R&D and innovation?– 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)

• These domains where innovative projects will complement the region’s other productive assets


• Smart specialisation is largely about the policy process to select and prioritize fields or areas where a cluster of activities should be developed

• Setting priorities, selecting fields always entail risks for policy makers

• The ‘business as usual’ strategies to minimize risks in setting priorities

• Smart specialisation suggests another strategy – To let entrepreneurs discovering the right domains of future

specialisations– To start a policy at a certain point in the development cycle

where a degree of local commitment and development have already occured and achieved


• D.Foray, P.A. David and B.Hall – Smart

Specialisation: the Concept

• It is not a planning doctrine that would require a region to specialize in a particular set of industries.

• It is an approach to policy that considers whether those activities already strong or showing promise for a region can benefit from (more) R&D and innovation


2 - Stories


Publicité en 1910

Lunettes Léon Jeantet


Publicité en 1910



Entrepreneurial discovery

Entry & growth

Policy

Structural evolution

Med.Tech. in Switzerland

° : location of med-tech manufacturers and suppliers


1’300 companies

45’000 employees

Annual turnover of CHF 20.3 billion

Share of export:70%

Global leaders: Synthes, Straumann

A global hub for MNCs R&D


Theodor KocherNobel LaureateMedicine, 1909, transformed the InselSpital (Bern) into a tool factory

Traditional handcraft skills in mechanical and clock manufacturing

First clinic for orthopaedic applications in Orbe, 1780

Critical episodes

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


Hansjörg Wyss

Martin Allgöwer


Entrepreneurial discovery!

Patents granted at EPO



Finnish pulp & paper

• The Finnish Pulp and Paper (P&P) industry views nanotechnology as promising source of valuable applications innovations, and its firms are taking steps to assess this potentiality.

• Some of the P&P companies are responding to these opportunities by increasing their overall internal R&D investments.

• The goal is not only about implementing available technologies but also exploring recent advances in areas of nanotechnology and biotechnology.



Moving from nails to eye-

glasses

Inventing medical

technologies

Discovering the

potential of nanotech. in pulp &

paper


Moving from nails to eye-

glasses

Inventing medical

technologies

Discovering the

potential of nanotech. in pulp &

paper

Entrepreneurial Discoveries !!

3 - The dynamics of..

• Entrepreneurial discovery• Entry & growth, agglomeration, clusters

– It constitutes the confirmation that others see the discovery as meaningful

– ‘Entry’ is desirable to generate agglomeration externalities (clusters) and a diversity of innovators (large and small)

• Structural changes– The outcome of entrepreneurial discoveries is not a simple

innovation. It is about structural changes

• Spaces

Not only for the best

• Innovation is multi-dimensional; not only one game in town

• Basic inventions and development of applications– With focus on different sectors, KEEN Regions

has greatly used this framework

• At minimum smart specialisation strategies transform less advanced regions into good followers



Entries & growth

Transition Modernisation Diversification Foundation


Discovery

4 - Policy

Entries & growth



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

Discovery

4 - Policy

Entries & growth



Is the dynamics replicable?

Discovery

4 - Policy


Entries & growth



To be flexible and rigid

Discovery

4 - Policy


Entries & growth



Regions are openBuilding extra-regional connections is key(Market, Expertise, Neighborhood)

Discovery

4 - Policye

e

mn

e

• There are as many special cases as regions in Europe

• Regularities?• Typologies?

– Metropolitan KIS– Public knowledge centers– High tech regions– Traditional southern regions– Knowledge absorbing regions– Skilled industrial east European regions– Skilled technological regions


• RA : rich in entrepreneurial capabilities

• RB: strong history of industries’development not necessarily associated with strong entrepreneurship

• RC: poor in entrepreneurial capabilities


Three steps

• Supporting the discovery process• Detecting discoveries and making

sound evaluation of potentials• Defining a process which will

empower those actors most capable of realising the potential (entries & growth)


5 - Three final observations

• Smart specialisation does not mean uniformisation– Related diversification at regional level– Greater diversity at system level

• Smart specialisation needs to be based on powerful industry structure– Firm’s diversity– Innovation needs to be not too

concentrated (avoid creative myopia)Collège du Management de la Technologie – CDMChaire en Economie et Management de l'Innovation – CEMI

• Not only a value for individual regions but also at system level (the EU, the US, Japan, South Korea, Mexico or Australia)

• Smart specialisation at regional level will promote greater diversity at system’s level


• All these policy challenges….– Supporting the discovery process– Detecting discoveries and making sound

evaluation of potentials– Defining a process which will empower those

actors most capable of realising the potential

• … require unusual observation and analysis capabilities by policy makers and regional agencies



Thanks!

Documents

Understanding smart specialisation