An In-Depth Analysis of the Summary Innovation Index in the V4 Countries

Abstract

Innovative activity is an important source of competitiveness, economic growth, as well as the image of each country. There are several ways to measure and evaluate the innovation performance of a country. Our research was focused on the summary innovation index (SII), a tool used for analysing the innovative ability of European countries. The Innovation Union is an EU initiative which monitors progress achieved in research, development, and innovation, all indicators which are included in the SII. The aim of this paper is to analyse the impact of all SII 27 indicators, which are divided into 10 main areas: human resources, research systems, innovation-friendly environment, finance and support, firm investments, innovators, linkages, intellectual assets, employment impacts, sales impacts. All these indicators are considered in creating the total value of the SII. A statistically significant relationship was determined among all the SII indicators and the total value of the SII using samples from the V4 countries of Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland during the period 2010–2016. The aim of the research was to identify possible strengths and weaknesses of the national innovation systems of these countries and, thus to identify the impact of these strengths and weaknesses on the innovative position of these countries.

Keywords

• innovation
• summary innovation index
• V4 countries
• competitiveness
• regression analysis