Designing a Smart Specialization Model forInnovation Development In the provinces of Iran: Case study of East Azerbaijan province

Innovation is a process dependent on geography and region in which local capacities such as resources, institutions, public and cultural values are the main drivers. Interactions between different sectors of the region, including technical, commercial, legal, social and financial sectors, contribute to the development, protection, financing or regulation of innovation and technology. The dependence of innovation on the characteristics of regions has made it impossible to provide a single model for the development of innovation in the regions, and in fact, a diverse set of institutional capacities, tools and characteristics is needed for the development and management of present and future knowledge. Also important are factors such as regional production, regional environment, system of academia and research in the region, public management and the capabilities of private and business firms. Given the differences in the state of innovation in the provinces of Iran, this study seeks to present a smart specialization for the development of regional innovation ecosystem in Iran. To this end, by studying and reviewing previous studies and research, the requirements and components of smart a smart specialization have been identified and based on them an initial framework has been designed for smart regional eco-innovation development policies. Then, in order to present a native model for intelligent policy package design, East Azerbaijan Province, which has been institutionalized in science and technology policy discussions among the province's actors and activists, was selected and with using Multi Grounded Theory (MGT) method and using interviews with provincial managers, trade unions, industrial cluster and technology managers. The identified requirements and components were initialized in a local and regional context. The proposed model of smart specialization for formulating regional innovation development policies includes three stages: preparing the vision and priority areas of the region, analyzing the innovation ecosystem of selected areas, formulating a policy mix and implementing planning along with considering process considerations.