Can public procurement aid the implementation of smart specialization strategies? Jon Mikel Zabala-Iturriagagoitiaa*, Edurne Magrob, Elvira Uyarrac, Kieron Flanaganc a.- Deusto Business School, University of Deusto, Donostia-San Sebastian (Spain) b.- Orkestra-Basque Institute of Competitiveness, University of Deusto, Donostia-San Sebastian (Spain) c.- Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Manchester (United Kingdom) * Corresponding author:
[email protected] Abstract In recent decades sub-national regions have become ever more important as spaces for policy making. The current focus on research and innovation for smart specialisation strategies is the latest manifestation of this trend. By putting PPI processes at the core of regional and local development initiatives to support innovation, governments can go beyond priority setting to become active stakeholders engaged in entrepreneurial discovery processes. In this paper we offer a new conceptualization of how such smart specialisation strategies, as an example of a sub- national innovation policy, can help articulate demand for innovation. The paper presents an evolutionary framework that relates regional specialisation processes with the scale and scope of the demand associated to that specialisation. We identify four different roles for governments to be played, depending on the availability of local capabilities and the scale of the chosen priorities: government as a lead user, government as an innovation catalyst,