Marta Gancarczyk is Associate Professor at the Institute of Economics, Finance, and Management, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.

Anna Ujwary-Gil is Associate Professor at Institute of Economics, Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Poland.

Manuel González-López is a researcher and Associate Professor at the Department of Applied Economics of the University of Santiago de Compostela and member of ICEDE Research Group.

Forward Professor Dominique Foray Introduction: The Expansion of the Smart Specialization Concept and Practice Marta Gancarczyk, Anna Ujwary-Gil, and Manuel González-López Part 1. Regional Smart Specialization Policies: An Experience in Planning, Implementation, and Monitoring 1. Regional Smart Specializations in Central and Eastern Europe: Between Political Decisions and Revealed Technological Potential Krzysztof Klincewicz, Magdalena Marczewska, and Christopher L. Tucci 2. The Implementation of the Smart Specialization Approach in the Peripheral Region of Galicia María del Carmen Sánchez-Carreira, Manuel González-López, and Pedro Varela-Vázquez 3. Challenges for Monitoring Smart Specialisation in the European Union Elbieta Wojnicka-Sycz, Korneliusz Pylak, Piotr Sli, and Piotr Sycz Part 2. Smart Specialization in the Sub-Regional and Local Government Context 4. The Impacts of Policy Instruments to Stimulate Bottom-Up Approaches for Smart Specialization: The Case of Baden-Wuerttemberg Elisabeth Baier 5. Exploring the Relationship between Smart Specialization Strategy (S3) and Smart City (SC) Initiatives in the Context of Inland Norway Xiang Ying Mei and Victoria Konovalenko Slettli 6. City Smart Specializations in Tourism: The Cases of Kraków, Poland, and Košice, Slovakia Jacek Gancarczyk, Vanda Marakova, and Ewa Wszendyby-Skulska Part 3. Smart Growth of Enterprises, Clusters, and Networks 7. The Quadruple Helix Partnerships for Enterprise Eco-Innovation in Italian Macro-Regions under the Lens of Smart Specialization strategy Ivano Dileo and Marco Pini 8. Smart Specialization through Cluster Policy: Evidence from Poland and Germany Anna Lis, Arkadiusz Michä Kowalski, and Marta Mackiewicz 9. Municipality Digital Platforms and Local Development in the Warmia and Mazury Region: Implications for Smart Specialization Aleksander Jakimowicz and Daniel Rzeczkowski