The role of proximity in stakeholder networks for Smart Specialisation: a Sparsely Populated Area case study

The European Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) with its underlying aim to support regional growth, cohesion, and innovation has by now been widely applied to European Sparsely Populated Areas (SPAs). Previous works have identified that intra-regional stakeholder networks are important for a success...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInnovation (Abingdon, England) Vol. 37; no. 2; pp. 421 - 441
Main Authors Ghinoi, Stefano, Steiner, Bodo, Makkonen, Teemu
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 02.04.2024
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Case studies
Economic growth
Finland
Innovations
Multiple roles
Networking
Proximity
R&D
Regional variations
Regions
Research & development
Smart specialisation strategy
Social network analysis
sparsely populated areas
Stakeholder management
Stakeholders
Finland
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Summary:The European Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) with its underlying aim to support regional growth, cohesion, and innovation has by now been widely applied to European Sparsely Populated Areas (SPAs). Previous works have identified that intra-regional stakeholder networks are important for a successful S3 implementation, and that their establishment is related to the level of proximity between stakeholders; however, the nature of such networks in the context of developing S3 in SPAs deserves further investigation. This paper explores how different dimensions of proximity are associated with intra-regional networks aimed at implementing S3 in a Northern European SPA (Lapland, Finland). The results suggest that geographical and cognitive proximity are positively associated with both formal and informal networking, while institutional proximity is negatively related with informal networking, suggesting that effective policy interventions require multiple relationships to be activated through supporting greater diversity between SPAs stakeholders.
ISSN:1351-1610
1469-8412
DOI:10.1080/13511610.2021.1879631