The Role of Clusters in the Smart Specialisation Process: The Case of Inovcluster in Portugal
Clusters are a key driver of the competitiveness and economic growth of a region, and they become even more important when the region has a smart specialisation strategy that involves clusters as dynamic innovation stakeholder. This chapter illustrates ho
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Clusters are a key driver of the competitiveness and economic growth of a region, and they become even more important when the region has a smart specialisation strategy that involves clusters as dynamic innovation stakeholder. This chapter illustrates how Inovcluster, an agri-food cluster oriented on SMEs and microbusiness, operates within the Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3) of the centre region of Portugal, promoting regional business competitiveness. The chapter also examines the ways in which Inovcluster acts in order to effectively improve the market position and behaviour of its members. Keywords Cluster · Inovcluster · Smart specialisation · Competitiveness · SMEs
1 Introduction Smart specialisation strategies were required for every European region as an ex ante condition for accessing European Union Structural Funds in the programming period 2014–2020 and represented a new vision on combining regional development and research, technological development and innovation goals (Bellini 2015). The smart specialisation strategy concept was originally proposed by a group of T. Paiva (*) NECE – Research Center in Business Sciences and Guarda Polytechnic Institute, Guarda, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] C. Domingues Inovcluster – Associação do Cluster Agroindustrial do Centro, Castelo Branco, Portugal L. Farinha Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco and NECE—Research Center in Business Sciences, Castelo Branco, Portugal M. Ranga European Commission—Joint Research Centre in Seville and University of Warsaw (Poland), Seville, Spain © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 L. Farinha et al. (eds.), Regional Helix Ecosystems and Sustainable Growth, Studies on Entrepreneurship, Structural Change and Industrial Dynamics, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47697-7_9
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innovation and growth economists and was further explored and defined by D. Foray, focusing on regional development (Foray 2015). It consists of an integrated and place-based economic transformation agenda that is characterised by five elements (Foray 2012): (1) focus on specific priorities; (2) reliance on strengths, competitive advantages and potential of the reference region; (3) use of a broad concept of innovation, involving the private sector; (4) full involvement of stakeholders through open, participatory processes of ‘entrepreneurial discovery’; and (5) being evidence- based and using central monitoring systems and evaluation as a learning tool. Smart specialisation strategies do not intend to specialise a region in a set of industries but to ensure a better connection between policies, objectives and funding instruments and to promote a well-targeted diversification based on related variety (Bellini 2015). To facilitate the implementation of the concept, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Seville, Spain, launched the Smart Specialisation Strategies Platform (S3 Platform), which provides a variety of learning tools to support the different phases of the process, from stra
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