The original purpose of the concept of innovation systems was to explain international specialisation patterns (Freeman 2004, Lundvall 1985), but the focus of its later development has gradually become the institutional analysis of innovative activities (Carlsson, 2006; Lundvall, 2007b)....

Elaborated in 2008 as part of the new industrial policy, the concept of smart specialisation has quickly become of key importance for the EU 2020 innovation strategy. New activities are to be nominated at the regional level that aim at exploring and discovering new technological and market...