Is Smart Specialisation Strategy coherent with regional innovative capabilities?

The implementation of the Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) has required European regions to identify the technological domains in which they show superior innovative capabilities. This choice should promote specialization and facilitate diversification into new sectors. Given that regional specialization shows path dependence, successful diversification can be achieved in domains closely related to the existing knowledge base. The paper provides a first empirical assessment of the coherence between the technological domains chosen by Italian regions and those in which they show actual innovative capabilities, as measured by their patenting activity. © 2018, © 2018 Regional Studies Association.