Breaking with the Past in Smart Specialisation: A New Model of Selection of Business Stakeholders Within the Entrepreneurial Process of Discovery

Abstract

The real core of the smart specialisation approach is embedded in what is known as the entrepreneurial process of discovery (EPD), which is a main novelty of this innovative policy framework. A successful EPD requires a relevant involvement of stakeholders in a clear break with past practices, but this demands a careful actors’ selection. In this context, this paper proposes an analytical method for the selection of private business stakeholders, based on a transparent and measurable criterion: the choice of the entrepreneurs who can best define an adequate resource allocation over time in a context of uncertainty. On the basis of a simple general equilibrium model with monopolistic competition, the paper proposes a simple test comparing the optimal decisions on factors’ demand taken in different periods. The closer both factors’ demands are, the better the entrepreneur’s ability will be to predict the most adequate level of resources, which is an indicator of economic success.