Title: Poland's innovation strategy: how smart is 'smart specialisation'?

Authors: Miroslaw Miller; Tomasz Mroczkowski; Adrian Healy

Addresses: International Laboratory of High Magnetic Fields and Low Temperatures, Polish Academy of Sciences, Gajowicka Str. 95, 53-421 Wrocław, Poland ' Department of International Business, Kogod School of Business, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW Washington, 20016, DC, USA ' Cardiff School of Planning and Geography, Cardiff University, Glamorgan Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, Wales CF10 3WA, UK

Abstract: Poland urgently needs to look to new sources of economic growth, particularly through strengthening of R&D in the economy. European investment funds will be critical for this, with a strong emphasis on the novel policy concept of smart specialisation. The paper assesses the opportunities and challenges of this approach, providing a diagnosis of the state of R&D&I system and the current state implementation of smart specialisation strategies (RIS3) in Poland. It finds that awareness of the RIS3 concept is still weak among Polish stakeholders at a regional level and that the involvement of enterprises, researchers and local governments in the process of 'entrepreneurial discovery' will be a key challenge for Poland, as will be the implementation of evaluation and monitoring systems. The article concludes with a discussion of the problems that need to be resolved to reap the full benefits of a smart specialisation approach and discusses some of its limitations.

Keywords: Poland; European Union; new member states; research and development; R&D; innovation systems; economy competitiveness; economy development; smart specialisation; regional policy; globalisation; entrepreneurial discovery; entrepreneurship; innovation strategy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTIS.2014.065697

International Journal of Transitions and Innovation Systems, 2014 Vol.3 No.3, pp.225 - 248

Received: 14 Oct 2013
Accepted: 19 Apr 2014
Published online: 15 Nov 2014 *

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