La estrategia europea de especialización inteligente. Implicaciones para el sistema andaluz de innovación

Résumé

Given the persistent coincidence in time of periods of economic growth and acceleration of technical progress, technological development and innovation have acquired great relevance as an object of study by economic science. Within the field of innovation economics, the theoretical framework of innovation systems offers public authorities a useful tool to foster the development of their respective countries or regions by improving their performance in innovation. Research and innovation strategies for smart specialization (RIS3), promoted by the EU institutions in 2014-2020 timeframe, seek to boost the contribution of EU regional policy to the priority of smart growth set out in the Europe strategy 2020, by improving the performance of regional innovation systems in the EU. EU regional policy has been of great historical importance for Andalusia, and its reform in the period 2014-2020 has a major impact on the region, mainly in terms of the reduction of the allocated financial resources and the reorientation of investments. As regards the destination of investments, in the 2014-2020 timeframe, actions to foster the regional innovation system through the Andalusian RIS3 strategy play a very important role. The main objective of our work is to analyse the fields of improvement of Andalusian innovation system within the scope of the Andalusian RIS3 strategy, with the support of EU regional policy funds. In this context, we intend to reinforce the SWOT analysis included in the RIS3 strategy of Andalusia, carrying out a comparative exercise with a large sample of European regions using the cluster analysis technique, as well as developing a more detailed qualitative analysis of the situation of the region in relation to a selection of regions. In both cases, we have focused our analysis on the structural dimensions considered determinant for the innovative performance. This exercise has allowed us to enrich the SWOT analysis included in the RIS3 strategy of Andalusia and, therefore, to design new proposals for action.