Reflection of Industrial Structure in Innovative Capability

Abstract

One of the declared strategic objectives of the European Union is an increase of applied innovations. The article draws attention to the correlation between innovation capacity and the industrial structure of economies. Its aim is to investigate whether selected groups of European countries show similar trends in industrial structure development reflected in its innovative capacity. For the analysis and evaluation of development in the period 2006-2013, we selected three groups of countries: Benelux, the Visegrad Group and the Baltic Assembly. The innovative capability evaluation, which is represented by the Global Innovation Index, is based partly on an ordinal analysis of its basic indices, but also on the evaluation of gamma-convergence. To assess the evolution of industrial structure, which is divided into five industry groups, the SHA-DE method based on gross added value is applied. The results show the signs of greater dynamics in strengthening innovation when grouping innovation-weaker countries; in terms of the development of disparities in innovative capability, the measured values suggest a divergence of innovatively developed Benelux countries, while in the less developed countries of the Visegrad Group and Baltic Assembly the ranges of disparities are rather stable and tend to weak convergence. In terms of industrial structure, the main differences can be seen among the surveyed groups both in the secondary sector, but particularly in the tertiary "innovative" sector. And it is the results obtained in relation to the share and development of the "innovative" tertiary sector that confirms the assumption that the innovativeness of a country is largely derived not from the entire economy, but mainly from the specific status of a narrow group of industries that can be largely considered the determinants of innovation.