Smart Specialisation as a Strategy for Implementing the Regional Innovation Development Policy—Poland Case Study

Abstract

Regional Innovation and Smart Specialisation Strategies (RIS3) are treated as one of the key tools in implementing the concept of smart and sustainable growth. The strategies make it possible to focus investments on research, development and innovation (RD & I) in the areas showing the greatest economic and competitive potential of the regions. The article is based on the assumption that innovativeness on the one hand determines and on the other hand is determined by smart and sustainable growth. The aim of the analysis is to present new research assumptions and the results of the regional benchmarking based on a synthetic measure of development, and verification of the relationships between the level of innovative development and the economic development in the regions. This article presents the results of a research study covering all the sixteen regions of Poland, the outcome of which is an indicator of regional innovativeness based on 17 features, which means that the study considered a total of 2992 features. The methods applied in the study included the zero unitarisation method, the linear ordering method, and the Pearson correlation coefficient. The completed research study has shown the stability of positions held by the individual regions and the considerable, persisting disproportions in the innovation development between the regions taking the positions at both ends of the ranking. Moreover, a moderate positive correlation was identified between the GDP per capita level and the value of the synthetic measure of regional innovation development in 2009. The completed analyses made it possible to formulate the conclusions that show the benefits, weaknesses and dilemmas related to the introduction of smart specialisations for sustainable and innovative regional development in Poland over the past decade.