In recent years, the Smart Specialisation Strategy (S³) has quickly developed from an academic concept into a policy trend with substantial momentum and widespread practical implications. In some recent publications of the concept's main proponents, the S³ approach is described as a good 'idea which had been in the air for some years' but which has been suppressed by an 'enormous conformity [of] innovation policy research and practices over the last decades' (Foray et al., 2011: 3). With a view to anecdotal evidence, however, it appears doubtful whether this claim that a 'stifling' policy 'dogma' (Foray et al., 2011) has obstructed regional economic development really holds to the extent claimed. To the contrary, case studies of regions with a long record of regional innovation policy seem to suggest that regional policies have been 'smart' for years and decades so that the S³ discussion has in some cases brought a fairly limited degree of novel inspiration to regional policy making. In the authors' view, the smart specialisation concept draws on two assumptions which may be characterised as bold. Firstly, it assumes that a lack of policy co-ordination has indeed been a broad and prevalent factor for the lack of success observed in many regions, and, secondly, suggests that drafting S³ strategies can bring about a substantial shift in the regional policy mix that notably amends the status quo. So far, however, there is no satisfactory empirical basis to corroborate these assumptions as generalisable across Europe. Firstly, it remains unclear whether the processes launched to draft S³ strategies really constitute novel approaches or whether they merely repeat established practices, Secondly, even where new strategies have been drafted in novel processes, it remains unclear whether this will lead to an actual adaptation of the existing policy mix, Thirdly, even where adaptations were made, it remains open whether they are mainly due to the novel strategy process or whether other factors have come to play. Based on a survey and telephone interviews, our study will seek to probe into these issues and thus add rigour to our empirical understanding of what arguably constitutes one of the currently most relevant trends in regional policy.
