Innovativeness in Macedonian Companies: Evidence from the Community Innovation Survey

Abstract

The importance of innovations for development of knowledge–based economies is widely acknowledged. However, certain challenges for researching the innovativeness in post–socialist economies still exist. We analyse the most influential drivers for innovativeness in Macedonian enterprises. Based on the extended literature review and the firm–level dataset collected by the CIS 2012 (Community Innovation Survey 2012), the conceptual model for identifying the factors that drive innovation was developed and tested with standard multiple regression. The findings confirm that firm innovativeness could be improved by extending the number of collaborators and sources for information and knowledge. Also, further investments in research and development for innovation positively impact the variety of innovation activities in companies. In addition to the theoretical and practical implications, this study is significant because the proposed method could be adjusted and applied in many countries where CIS research is conducted.

Keywords

• collaboration
• Community Innovation Survey
• information sources
• innovativeness
• Macedonia