Policy learning and smart specialization: exploring strategies for regional industrial change

This paper seeks to explain what policy approaches and policy measures are best suited for promoting renewal and transformation in regional economies and what needs and possibilities there are for such policy to change and adapt to new conditions in order to remain efficient. The paper departs from the notion of Smart Specialization, which has become a popular strategy among policy makers recently. We discuss how regional smart specialization strategies influence regional path renewal and path creation and how they are related to and aligned with policy strategies implemented at other territorial scales (local, regional, national, supranational). We distinguish between different levels of policy learning and types of change in relation to path renewal and new path creation. Our main argument is that new regional growth paths require both stability and change within the support structure of the innovation system. Apart from being adaptive and tailor made for the specific preconditions of the regional economy, the regional system must also be resilient and predictable on certain dimensions. Unless smart specialization strategies are able to combine such adaptation and stability, they fail to promote path renewal and new path creation. Our arguments are illustrated with empirical findings from the regional innovation system of Scania, South Sweden.