Green transition and the role of smart specialisation in Europe - an empirical examination

The thesis is rooted in the spheres of regional innovation, and green transition, using the European instrument of smart specialisation as a practical example for quantititive analysis. The individual chapters strive to address the topic of regional innovation and sustainability from different angles by exploiting new data sources and applying new analytical methods. One chapter focuses on an analysis of the role of environmental sustainability in both regional innovation and smart specialisation research by applying a bibliometric approach. The second article focuses on interregional cooperation in environmental innovation in Europe by constructing cooperation networks based on data on Horizon 2020 research projects. The third article takes the circular economy as an example of a regional policy for environmental sustainability and develops a novel index to quantify regional performance in this regard. The fourth article constructs an econometric model on basis of patent data to demonstrate that this regularly used data can still reveal new information on the factors that determine regional green specialisations. The chapters recognise the call for novel metrics for inform policies and strategies and in each case discuss the policy implications of the respective findings. Among the central findings are a crucial role of innovation for a successful transition, the differentiated picture painted by analysing the regional rather than national or supra-national levels, and a need for adaptation of existing policy instruments.