Do Human Resources and the Research System Affect Firms’ Innovation Activities? Results from Poland and the Czech Republic

Aleksandra Zygmunt

doi:10.3390/su12062519

Abstract

Strong relationships between innovation of firms and sustainable development of regions and countries have priority in issues related to firms’ innovation performance. In this paper, particular emphasis is given to Poland and the Czech Republic as countries with similar innovation performance. Specifically, it seems interesting to identify the extent to which human resources and the research system in these countries matter in firms’ innovation activities. Thus, the aim of the paper is to test whether human resources and the research system affect Polish and Czech firms’ innovation activities. The data were sourced from the European Innovation Scoreboard (2018, 2019) for the period of 2010–2016. A set of variables concerning human resources and the research system were employed. The hypotheses were tested with the Cobb–Douglas function. This paper contributes to the existing literature by adding to studies that seek to identify determinants of firms’ innovation activities. The findings indicate the statistical significance of such a variable related with human resources, as lifelong learning for innovation activities of firms from Poland and such a variable connected with the research system, as the top 10% most cited publications on Czech firms’ innovation activities. The paper has practical and policy implications. There is a need, among others, to strengthen knowledge diffusion processes between firms and universities, research organisations, and institutional environments in order to improve innovation activities of firms.

Highlights

It has been widely argued that innovation stimulates competitive advantage of firms, regions, and countries [1,2] and contributes to sustainable development [3]
Despite growing literature on firms’ innovation performance [15,16,17], little attention has been devoted so far to the significance of human resources and the research system for innovation activities of Polish and Czech firms. To address this important gap, this study aims to test whether human resources and the research system affect Polish and Czech firms’ innovation activities
The study provides insights into the effect of human resources and the research system on innovation activities of firms from Poland and the Czech Republic. Both in terms of human resources and the research system, the results of comparative analysis show a higher potential for the Czech Republic than Poland in 2010–2016. This suggests that firms from the Czech Republic are in much better shape than those from Poland when it comes to the ability to acquire high-skilled workers and external knowledge from universities and research organisations

Summary

Introduction

It has been widely argued that innovation stimulates competitive advantage of firms, regions, and countries [1,2] and contributes to sustainable development [3]. A growing body of literature deals with the role of knowledge diffusion in firms’ innovation performance [9,10] Such processes foster innovations and increase competitive advantage. These issues are considered in endogenous growth and knowledge spillover theories. In this regard, the current state of the literature largely supports the view of human resources as being important in knowledge diffusion and in fostering firms’ innovation performance [11,12], with high-skilled workers believed to constitute a crucial factor for building competitive advantage of firms [10]. For all that, the debate on the determinants of firms’ innovation performance is still incomplete, with regards to human resources and the research system

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