Do regional smart specialization strategies affect innovation in enterprises?

According to the European Commission, the smart specialization strategy is intended as a response to complex development challenges and a tool for stimulating innovation at the regional level. At the same time, it is known that the conditions in which businesses operate, including institutional framework, socio-economic aspects, infrastructure and forms of business support, do not always meet their needs. The research and analyses carried out in this study were aimed at testing the relationships mainly between the external activities that most create/develop innovation in enterprises, networking within the innovation ecosystem, and barriers inhibiting innovation development. For this purpose, 250 survey interviews were conducted with representatives of innovative enterprises from five regions in Poland. Our research and analyses have shown that regions make considerable efforts to comprehensively define rather complex RIS3 (Research and Innovation Smart Specialization Strategy) policy priorities, while in reality these priorities often do not coincide with the expectations of entrepreneurs.