Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the origin of the concept of smart specialisation and identifies the basic shared arguments and facts that have made it possible for smart specialisation to have 'political salience' and make policymakers eager to 'do it'. It aims to articulate a coherent vision of the policy approach that is evoked by the term smart specialisation strategy, and to explores and elaborates the requirements and implications that are consistent with giving operational content to that conceptualisation. The notion of smart specialization describes the capacity of an economic system to generate new specialities through the discovery of new domains of opportunity and the local concentration and agglomeration of resources and competences in the domains. Such a capacity is needed to initiate structural changes in the form of diversification, transition, modernisation or the radical foundation of industries and/or services.