The early experience of smart specialization implementation in EU cohesion policy

This paper discusses the early-stage experience of the smart specialization agenda within EU Cohesion Policy. The analysis examines the types of policy prioritization choices made by different member states and regions and seeks evidence on the extent to which weaker regions, in particular, might be constrained in their choices. The paper then reviews the evidence arising out of various surveys of policy-makers’ own experience and perceptions of the agenda, and concludes with a discussion of the major features of the policy progress so far and the main challenges ahead

Technological diversification within UK’s small serial innovators

This paper investigates the determinants of technological diversification among UK’s small serial innovators (SSIs). Using a longitudinal study of 339 UK-based small businesses accounting for almost 7000 patents between 1990 and 2006, this study constitutes the first empirical examination of technological diversification among SMEs in the literature. Results demonstrate that technological diversification is not solely a large firm activity, challenging the dominant view that innovative SMEs are extremely focused and specialised players with little technological diversification. Our findings suggest a nonlinear (i.e. inverse-U-shaped) relationship between the level of technological opportunities in the environment and the SSIs’ degree of technological diversification. This points to a trade-off between processes of exploration and exploitation across increasingly volatile technology regimes. The paper also demonstrates that small firms with impactful innovations focus their innovative activity around similar technological capabilities while firms that have introduced platform technologies in the past are more likely to engage in technological diversification

Intra-cluster knowledge exchange and frequency of product innovation in a digital cluster.

We investigate how intra-cluster knowledge exchange affects the frequency of product innovation. Based on self-administered survey data of digital SMEs from Bournemouth and Poole regions of England, this study shows that digital firms that sustain both temporary and prolonged relationships with outbound employees have a higher probability of introducing frequent product innovation. Moreover, while cognitive proximity and the use of external knowledge providers increase the probability of frequent product innovation, geographical proximity reduces it. Our findings suggest that managers of young digital firms with limited resources in peripheral regions should ‘act near’ before reaching out