| Summary: | Smart specialization strategy, as an innovative system for regional economies, should identify priority areas in which regions and countries have competitive advantages or have the potential to generate knowledge-based development and economic transformation. The number and nature of these priorities will vary depending on the region. Smart specialization strategy requires identifying in each region one or more thematic areas where R&D and innovation policies should aim at creating and maintaining competitive advantages. Priorities can be formulated in terms of knowledge or activities (not only scientific but also social, cultural), subsystems in the sector and be outside the industries, market niches, clusters, technologies, etc. The ability to identify opportunities for the region to expand into new priority areas is central in the concept of smart specialization. Global economic growth requires a higher competitiveness of the regions, especially where the potential is highest. The selection of priority domains stimulates innovation and investment, while, in order for the regions to succeed, they must use their own mix of assets, skills and ideas to compete in the world market and develop their untapped potential.
The article is devoted to the analysis of priority areas of smart specialization and interpretation of the concept of domains within the framework of regional development. The research focuses on the generalization of approaches to the definition of the conceptual essence of the «domain» category by taking into account the influence of national specificity, as well as the indication of the role of domains in the process of entrepreneurial discovery. Various approaches to the «domains» definition as structured themes within the framework of regional development, which are introduced in practice through the processes of entrepreneurial discovery, are considered. Examined examples of priority areas within the region and domains of EU countries, the attention on the process of identifying domains based on entrepreneurial discover was pointed.
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