Integrating low socio-economic minorities in a mixed region into technological entrepreneurship and high-tech activities

This study attempts to identify the necessary conditions for promoting the integration of very low socioeconomically disadvantaged minorities in mixed regions into technological entrepreneurship and high-tech activities and the relevancy of the smart specialization model in this process. The study focused on the mixed region of Beersheva-Rahat and the surrounding Bedouin diaspora in Israel, where the minority population is ranked at the lowest level on the socioeconomic scale. The study is based on an earlier study by Shilon et al. ([2021], “Smart Specialization: A Spontaneous Four-Step Process in the Mixed Arab-Jewish Region of Haifa and Nazareth.” Regional Studies). The findings in that study show that for smart specialization in mixed regions to occur, a pre-phase of social-relationship and business-network building between the majority and minority populations is required. The findings of the present study indicate that in mixed regions with a minority population that is ranked very low on the socioeconomic scale and has a low level of readiness for technological entrepreneurship and high-tech activities, a pre-preliminary-phase is needed in order for smart specialization to work–a phase in which entrepreneurship in high-tech related fields is becoming an accepted and valid occupational trajectory.