Abstract
Abstract The purpose of this paper is to provide a new framework for assessing the innovation capacity and efficiency in Romanian small enterprises and start-ups. In this sense, a systematic literature review has been employed in order to obtain a clear understanding of the existing knowledge and to critically evaluate the existing solutions. In addition, considering the European Union objectives regarding innovation and sustainable development, this paper investigates the present situation of Romania by interpreting the official European Commission reports and current research papers. Considering the importance of regional innovation advancement and that of creating economic growth through competitiveness, this paper scrutinizes several concepts from the scientific literature, including regional innovation governance, entrepreneurship and innovation efficiency with the final purpose of developing a framework applicable for Romania. Taking into consideration the relatively low scores of Romanian regions regarding innovativeness and technological advancement, this paper attempts to provide a clearer understanding of the applicable factors that can be used for measuring innovation performance. The proposed framework focuses on the importance of entrepreneurship and the development of new business models in order to efficiently assess the innovative endeavors of enterprises. All things considered, this paper provides both theoretical and managerial contributions and possibility for further investigations addressed at specific Romanian regions and business sectors.
Highlights
The increasing importance of innovative national systems, which imply the cooperation of all parties, namely business owners, government, industries and workforce, is being addressed by several scholars. Guan & Chen (2012) reveal the need for a new orientation in innovation policies and emphasize the interdependency between “agents, organizations and institutions” as a priority
Considering the literature review and the models analyzed, this paper aims to propose a framework for assessing innovation capacity and the resulting business efficiency for Romanian small enterprises and start-ups
Following this line of thought and the current results for Romania at European level, namely Romania being considered a modest innovator, Edquist et al (2018) question the relevance of the innovation indicators presented in the European Innovation Scoreboard for measuring innovation efficiency
Summary
The increasing importance of innovative national systems, which imply the cooperation of all parties, namely business owners, government, industries and workforce, is being addressed by several scholars. Guan & Chen (2012) reveal the need for a new orientation in innovation policies and emphasize the interdependency between “agents, organizations and institutions” as a priority. The increasing importance of innovative national systems, which imply the cooperation of all parties, namely business owners, government, industries and workforce, is being addressed by several scholars. The authors propose as solutions the implementation of national innovation systems, concepts that are developed through the cooperation between industries and governments and applied for specific “geographic units”. The authors highlight the need for adopting regional innovation systems, characterized by knowledge sharing and cooperation between “public and private agents”. In this sense, Argatu & Păunescu (2019) reveal that achieving such objectives, related to the overall competitiveness of a country, implies multiple dimensions, such as: innovative capacity, sustainability, entrepreneurial and economic conditions. In order to create regional innovation systems, Wang et al (2016) reveal the need for specific regulations and policies, “resource circulation and allocation of innovation resources”
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