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The dynamics of added-value creation and innovation are increasingly at the intersection of multiple technologies, skills, and sectors. The regional smart specialization strategy and the competitiveness clusters policy in Wallonia aim in particular at encouraging these cross-fertilizations. In addition, given current economic trends (globalization, digitalization, etc.), value chains are evolving, creating new challenges for regional competitiveness. In this context, it is useful to develop new analytical tools in order to better understand cross-sector relationships, as a factor of regional anchoring and as a source of innovation.Thanks to a combination of approaches using the interregional input-output table and microeconomic and macroeconomic data, three Walloon value chains have been analyzed recently (the chemical sector, including the pharmaceutical industry, and the construction sector). This contribution illustrates the new insight that this value chains approach can bring for economic and innovation policy at the regional level. In particular, it makes it possible to explore questions related to regional positioning within global value chains, to the regional anchoring of sectors through their links with other upstream and downstream sectors, in Wallonia and abroad, and to the potential for cross-sector innovation.JEL Classification: O14, O38, L65, L74