Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialization (RIS3) was integrated as a key piece of the cohesion policy for the European Union (EU) for 2014–2020. During the recent years, more than 120 RIS3 have been developed, being a large-scale EU experience aimed to develop innovation-driven economic transformations at national and regional levels. The objective of this article is to explore the models that best explain innovative employment and the emergence of new markets in Europe’s regions. For that purpose, the latest dataset of the Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2019 was used, and regressions performed to identify the main factors behind the impact of regional innovation. The results unveil the ‘double edge role’ that some variables have on regional innovation, indicating the difficulties of managing different trade-offs and of a standalone innovation policy strategy. Policy measures are discussed to best manage these critical compromises and increase the impact of RIS3.

智能专业化研究与创新战略 (RIS3) 被整合为欧盟 (EU) 2014-2020 年凝聚力政策的关键部分。近年来，已经开发了 120 多个 RIS3，这是一项大规模的欧盟经验，旨在在国家和区域层面发展创新驱动的经济转型。本文的目的是探索最能解释欧洲地区创新就业和新市场出现的模型。为此，使用了 2019 年区域创新记分牌的最新数据集，并进行了回归以确定区域创新影响背后的主要因素。结果揭示了一些变量对区域创新的“双刃作用”，表明管理不同权衡和独立创新政策战略的困难。讨论了政策措施，以最好地管理这些关键妥协并增加 RIS3 的影响。