Identifying the components of universities smart specialization strategy

The strategy for smart specialization university has been one of the main policies of the European Union in recent years to develop regional performance and economic growth through university systems. In spite of this, no research has been done to identify the components of this strategy. Accordingly, this study aimed to identify the components of the smart specialization strategy of higher education institutions. This qualitative research was conducted using the meta-synthesis strategy and content analysis. In the findings, fifteen components were extracted as follows: specialized pedagogy (efficient teaching methods, environmental learning), specialized research (specialized research policy-making, research targeting, research networking), academic entrepreneurship (continuous university-industry link, entrepreneurial institutionalization, and development of research cooperation capacities with the industry and different sectors), specialized governance (multi-level governance, specialized regional governance, specialized governance in higher education), specialized general management (efficient public management, effective government monitoring and evaluation), specialized management of higher education (new management in higher education and university job creation), specialized regional development (regional innovation ecosystem, crowdsourcing decision-making and regional decision-making, regional entrepreneurship, university regional compatibility), human resource capital development (professional development of faculty members, students and staff), information and communication technology (statistical-technical and technological innovations), university finance (the allocation of financial resources, planning and financial resource management), hard capacity building (hard public and research capacity building), legal mechanisms (compilation and revision of laws), incentive-support mechanisms (development of incentive and support mechanisms), development of cultural capacities (social and academic culture) and creating a competitive atmosphere (competition within and beyond higher education). Finally, a schematic model of smart specialization of the university and the proposed policies for Iran's higher education system are presented.