Regional diversity of innovation in Poland

Abstract

Innovation is an important issue in the context of the socio-economic development of enterprises, regions and even entire countries. It is a key element of the economic competitiveness of regions. The innovativeness of regions is the result of the innovativeness of entities located in their territory. Innovations play a special role among the various sources of competitive advantages. Their successive creation combined with the ability to adapt to the changing environment creates better opportunities for entrepreneurs to stay in a competitive market and, as a result, leads to the socio-economic development of regions. The aim of the article is to analyze the diversity of innovation potential and assess the level of innovation of voivodeships in Poland in the years 2010–2022. The study assessed such measures as: expenditures on innovation activity in enterprises in relation to GDP, expenditures on innovation activity in enterprises per 1 professionally active person, the share of expenditures on innovation activity in enterprises in national expenditures. Measures regarding the innovative activity of enterprises, the size and structure of expenditures on innovation as well as the effects of implemented innovation activities also play an important role. In order to comprehensively assess the level of innovation of voivodeships in Poland, one of the methods of multidimensional comparative analysis was used – a synthetic indicator was constructed using the Hellwig development pattern method. Based on the conducted analysis, significant differentiation of Polish regions in terms of innovation was indicated. The analysis shows that regions with a higher level of socio-economic development, including a higher share of the service sector in their economy, are characterized by greater involvement in innovation activities. Therefore, a relationship can be observed between the level of innovation and the level of socio-economic development measured by GDP. As a rule, voivodeships with a high GDP are also characterized by a higher level of innovation.