ABSTRACT
Smart Specialisation is especially challenging for lagging regions. It is well documented lagging regions are typically characterised by underdeveloped business and knowledge networks and a lack of entrepreneurial talent, as well as limited technological and innovation capabilities. The chapter outlines reasons for supporting and developing extra-regional collaboration between lagging and leading regions, and highlights the difficulties and inherent risks that typically lie within such an approach. It considers existing European Union (EU) mechanisms to foster such collaboration, and explore these in the context of some illustrative examples from case research in Cornwall, United Kingdom, and Puglia, Italy. Economic development is strongly defined by the historical capabilities and industrial specialisms of regions. It is important to recognise and build upon these existing resources. Evidence at the EU level suggests lagging regions are more innovative when their resident firms are actively engaged with more prolific inventors from knowledge-intensive regions.
