1. CIRCLE, Lund University, Sweden
Discussion: REGIO-ERSA Joint Lecture by Prof. Kevin Morgan: The Public Animateur: Place-based Innovation and the Smart State
Michaela Trippl
CIRCLE, Lund University, Sweden
Brussels, 17th June, 2016

2. Introduction
Rethinking the role of governments and public policy: the entrepreneurial, experimentalist, smart state
From glorifying the market towards glorifying the state?
Acknowledging new elements in the discussion: integration of ideas from new industrial policy (NIP)

3. Overview The smart state is not a monolith
The smart state and the challenge of inclusive governance
The smart state in less-developed regions: the outward looking and anchoring state

4. The smart state is not a monolith
Bewildering array of organisations / units at the municipal, regional, national and EU policy level
Variety of public authorities & policy organisations directly or indirectly shape innovation & diversification capacities of regional economies
Smart policy organisations do not suffice
Coordination challenges: horizontal policy coordination (innovation policy does not suffice) & vertical policy coordination (MLG)
Autonomy challenges - smart but powerless: smart regional policy actors located in centralist states?

5. The smart state and the challenges of inclusive governance
Challenges of embedded autonomy: forging public- private interaction – avoiding policy capture by vested interest groups
Coordination capacity of the private sector: a neglected theme?
Experimenting with inclusive governance: beyond top- down policies and involvement of “usual suspects”

6. The smart state and the challenges of inclusive governance
Challenges vary considerably across regions:
Challenges in developed regions: balancing between established and new actors / giving voice to previously overlooked actors: beyond triple helix constellations
Challenges in less-developed regions: absence of interlocutors: limited capabilities (SMEs) or limited interest (MNCs, universities)

7. The smart state in less-developed regions
State: part of the solution or part of the problem?
Poor quality of government: fundamental barrier to regional development & innovation  institutional reforms as core challenge
Less-developed regions are not a homogeneous group: wide variation of potentials and challenges in LDRs in Southern, Eastern and Central / Northern parts of Europe

8. Structural change in LDRs
Routes of path development
New path creation
Path importation
Path branching
Path upgrading
Path extension
Which route of diversification should LDRs choose?
Path importation: an overlooked phenomenon?
Which type of policy is required?

9. The smart state in less-developed regions
The outward looking state …
Activating endogenous potentials and harnessing exogenous sources of change
Fundamental dilemma of LDRs: strong need for non- local knowledge but weak attraction and absorption capacities

10. Smart specialisation and non-local sources of transformation
Exogenous sources of new regional industrial path development: the challenge for LDRs
Smart specialisation and non-local sources of transformation
Attraction capacity
Anchoring capacity
Need
high
low
low
Non-local knowledge links
Trade linkages
R&D collaborations
Global innovation networks
GVCs
Arrival of new actors from outside the region
Organizational actors: (Resettlement of firms, establishment of R&D bodies)
Individual actors (highly skilled people, engineers, entrepreneurs, scientists)
LDRs: thin RIS
Thick & specialized RIS
Thick & diversified RIS
low
high
high

11. The smart state in less-developed regions
The outward looking and anchoring state
Creating a favourable regional environment for the local diffusion of incoming knowledge  policies promoting the absorption and anchoring capacity
Combining actor-based and system-based policies

12. Many thanks for your attention !