Smart Specialization and Sustainability
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Sustainability and Applications".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2019) | Viewed by 8825
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The accelerated globalization of product markets triggers the radical transformation of the economic systems of trading partners and questions their economic and social sustainability. The search for a new role in the division of labor calls attention on the high levels of heterogeneity and variety of their regional factor markets and the major opportunities provided by the consequent pecuniary externalities. Smart specialization consists in: i) the identification of rare and cheap intermediary inputs, both tangible and intangible in local factor markets; ii) the appreciation of hidden and unexploited complementarities; iii) the valorization of localized knowledge based upon learning processes; iv) the introduction of biased technological change, that is able to increase the technological congruence of the production process increasing the intensive use of inputs that are locally abundant, v) the diversification of incumbents in related activities that enable to take advantage of proximity in the regional and product space, and vi) the dynamics of entrepreneurship able to discover the competitive strength of the unique availability of cheap and abundant inputs. At the firm level smart specialization strategies lead to integrated glocal value chains that are able to valorize the heterogeneity of local factor markets with the variety of global product markets within general purpose platforms. At the policy level, the smart specialization approach enables to better integrate the centralized top-down and decentralized public interventions of regional, industrial, knowledge, development and innovation policies.
Prof. Cristiano Antonelli
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- factor markets
- hidden complementaries
- pecuniary externalities
- localized knowledge
- directed technological change
- technological congruence
- related diversification
- entrepreneurship
- general purpose platforms
- growth strategy
- integrated economic policy
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
