Abstract:

Over the past five years, a serious discussion has developed in the scientific community and business about the nature and content of the integrated regional specialization strategies. It has a lot to do both with the triple helix and the quadruple helix concepts introduced by the European Commission as the initial condition for the implementation of some operational program under the structure and investments funding, those strategies focus on the efforts of scientists in the field of innovation, sectoral and regional development.

In Bulgaria, the team of Burgas Free University performed already a field research behind a substantial part of the content in this paper under the IRISI („Indexing the Regional Innovative Levels in the Sectors of the Economy - scenario for the identified in the ISSS four priority thematic areas for smart specialization and their positioning towards the circular economy”) project financed under the Bulgarian National Scientific Fund. Thus, the aim of this paper will be to identify the types of investments and the levels of the spread out of innovative practices towards two out of the six planning regions in Bulgaria.

As a result, the main industries, as well as the balance between them for the regional innovation activities will be identified. At the same time, the managerial and the process to services balance and the performance of the academia and local factor like society and governance will further facilitate the quadruple helix system identification.

Keywords:

Regional activity, Quadruple helix, Investment performace, Smart specialisation, Innovation.