La especialización inteligente impulsa la globalización de pequeñas y medianas empresas en la región finlandesa de Ostrobotnia

The article highlights five challenges in learning Smart Specialization: 1) regional governance needs to establish priorities, going beyond only distributing money; 2) the strive for co-evolution between analysis, partnering and integrating stakeholders into work plans; 3) transnational learning in support of regional learning; 4) dealing with complexity and dynamics surrounding the entrepreneurial discovery process and the innovation ecosystem with relevant stakeholders and partner relations; 5) managing multi-level governance and interactions with national policies. This learning has led to a new understanding of the challenges of the regional innovation ecosystem, and a smart strategy. In this strategy small and medium sized businesses are seen as core actors in diversifying the regional export base. Furthermore, establishing policy instruments fostering regional connectivity and building new export-oriented value chains, where SMEs are enabled to collaborate with focal large enterprises constitute key outcomes of the strategy.