Fuzzy classification of European regions in the evaluation of smart growth
Fuzzy classification of European regions in the evaluation of smart growth

Summary/Abstract: “Europe 2020 Strategy” presents the vision of European economy development, in which smart development, i.e. development based on knowledge and innovation, constitutes one of major priorities. Smart specialization which refers to enterprises, research centres and high schools cooperating in defining the most promising areas of specialization in a given region, represents one of crucial smart development components. Smart specialization refers to both, the concept and the tool, allowing regions and countries to assess their unique position in knowledge-based economy. This knowledge should not be underestimated at the stage of preparing regional and interregional policy assumptions and specifying directions for the distribution of financial means allocated to further development of regions, constructing their advantage in regional space and position in knowledge based economy. Therefore, the essential objective of the hereby study is to distinguish classes of regions in European space with regard to one complex phenomenon, i.e. smart specialization. For this reason both classical and fuzzy classification methods were applied. Such approach facilitated e.g. specifying these regions for which it is difficult to provide clear division regarding their membership in distinguished classes. They are the regions which “keep searching” for their optimum path of smart development and which should be offered particular attention by entities managing development at regional, national and overall EU level.

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