The impact of innovation performance on the competitiveness of the visegrad 4 countries

Abstract

The economic development of world economies accompanied by their growing openness and stronger integration processes put pressure on mutual confrontation of their economic power based on its determinant sources. International comparison requires determining a complex of factors that affect the success of developed economies; factors that, given their multiplier effects, influence the social productivity of labor in a country and create a competitive advantage in an international comparison. A key factor of the states' increasing competitiveness is assumed to be the innovation performance of enterprises, which is projected through innovative business processes into the innovation performance of the economy as a whole. This paper determines the impact of their innovation performance on their international competitiveness position observed by the Global Economic Forum based on the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI). To assess the impact, the following economic-statistical methods were used: comparative and correlation analyses and logical deduction. Data from the World Economic Forum (WEF), European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), and Eurostat database were used to process the assessment. The results of the research have led to the conclusion that the Visegrad 4 (V4) countries as transition economies in terms of their economic development are quite similar, but in the ranking of global competitiveness, their position varies depending on the innovative performance. The Czech economy is the best performing of the four, while the worst indicators are attributed to the economies of Slovakia and Hungary. The economy of Poland has a relatively balanced development. The results of these analyses have led to the creation of a discussion platform focused on the evaluation of the innovation potential status and its determinants in Slovakia, with the aim of pointing out critical areas in the country's competitiveness growth on an international scale.