Entrepreneurial discovery process across Europe: Tools and mechanisms

This policy insight focuses on the tools and mechanisms used by countries and regions to foster efficient entrepreneurial discovery processes (EDP), within their smart specialisation strategies. How this interactive process should be stimulated and organised remains highly context-dependent. There seem to be a significant heterogeneity across entrepreneurial discovery processes and within entrepreneurial discovery processes themselves. Existing institutions, culture and historical trajectory of innovation policy influence the ways countries and regions organise their entrepreneurial discovery processes. The ambiguity around the entrepreneurial discovery process, in theory and practice, stems from the diverse interpretations that can be made of what the desired process should look like, and from the diverse regional contexts in which it is to be implemented. To organise successful entrepreneurial discovery processes we suggest focusing on interventions that: (i) design/implement mechanisms around the specificities of the regional context; (ii) re-consider using digital forms of engagement; (iii) increase the use of communication and dissemination tools.