ABSTRACT
The strategic aims of RIS3 should be achieved first of all by fostering a new policy process, the entrepreneurial discovery process (EDP), in which entrepreneurs and their partners in government, universities and civil society work in concert to identify new business opportunities. However, this bottom–up EDP implicitly assumes a mature institutional framework, which is hardly realistic in the case of regions with less developed research and innovation (R&I) systems. The prevalence of immature R&I systems combined with defective economic structures (weak SME sectors and branch-plant syndrome) means that a customised approach to the EDP is needed in many of these regions. Therefore, after critical analysis of key institutional barriers for EDP in less developed regions, alternative design of more inclusive EDP (focused first upon horizontal/systemic measures) is outlined. Thus, the main argument of the chapter is that the challenging process of searching for new domains of economic specialisation in regions with less developed R&I systems cannot assume the collaborative working arrangements that have evolved over many years in more advanced regions. In such regions, therefore, the initial effort should aim to address major deficiencies of a systemic nature.
