Abstract

Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialization (RIS3) emphasize the need for a collaborative governance, as an interactive and consensus-based decision-making process involving different stakeholders for their development. This paper offers an analysis of the role recognized to a collaborative governance in the Italian RIS 3 considered at regional level. The research starting from the national Strategy for Smart Specialization investigates through a textual analysis the regional RIS 3 taking into account opportunities and threats emerging from structures and functions responsible for ensuring a collaborative governance. Moreover, the paper investigates the link between a collaborative governance with RIS 3 key processes such as entrepreneurship discovery, quadruple helix, monitoring and evaluation.