The introduction of smart specialization (S3) as a fundamental pillar of the 2014 reform of the EU cohesion policy is a significant strategic shift in European development intervention. S3 strategies aimed at mobilizing the economic potential of each country and region of the EU by allowing a more place-based and bottom-up approach to development. However, despite the salience that S3 has acquired in a short period of time, there has been no European-wide evaluation of the extent to which S3 strategies truly reflect the economic characteristics and potential of the territories where they are being implemented. This article examines the characteristics of S3 strategies across Europe – by focusing on their development axes, economic or scientific domains and policy priorities – to assess whether this is the case. The results show that S3 strategies display a proliferation of objectives, a problem that particularly affects areas with weaker quality of government. Moreover, strategies are generally loosely connected with the intrinsic conditions of each region and mostly mimic what neighbouring areas are doing. The lack of more concise and focused S3 strategies is likely to undermine the effectiveness of what is, otherwise, a very interesting and worthwhile policy experiment.

中文翻译：

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聪明的专业化策略有多“聪明”？

引入智能专业化 (S3) 作为 2014 年欧盟凝聚政策改革的基本支柱是欧洲发展干预的重大战略转变。S3 战略旨在通过允许更多基于地方和自下而上的发展方法来调动欧盟每个国家和地区的经济潜力。然而，尽管 S3 在短时间内获得了显着地位，但在欧洲范围内还没有评估 S3 战略在多大程度上真正反映了实施这些战略的地区的经济特征和潜力。本文通过关注其发展轴心、经济或科学领域以及政策优先事项，审视了整个欧洲 S3 战略的特征，以评估情况是否如此。结果表明，S3 战略显示出目标的扩散，这一问题尤其会影响政府质量较弱的地区。此外，战略通常与每个地区的内在条件松散地联系在一起，并且大多模仿邻近地区正在做的事情。缺乏更简洁和集中的 S3 策略可能会破坏原本非常有趣和有价值的政策实验的有效性。