Methodological approach to the comprehensive assessment of the functioning of the industrial sector at the meso level

Abstract

Industry forms the basis for the world economy and national economies, in particular, as it provides intermediate and final consumption products to all other sectors (manufacturing, finance, services) and the population. The article aims to develop a methodology for a comprehensive assessment of the industrial sector efficiency at the meso level and its testing on the example of Polish regions. The authors’ methodology includes three main stages of research. The first stage involves calculating the level of industrial economy and innovation of the country and its regions in terms of sales of industrial products, the cost of innovation of industrial enterprises, and net income from the sale of innovative products. The second stage includes an integrated assessment of the industrial sector’s efficiency. For each of the four selected indicators of efficiency (investment, labor, innovation, and profitability), the taxonomic indicators defined as the arithmetic mean of the three standardized indicators are calculated. In the third stage, the regions are ranked according to the values of taxonomic indicators of the current development state and dynamics, as well as the final integrated indicator of the industry efficiency based on the k-average method. The results of the assessments of the industrial sector of the Polish economy according to the authors’ methodology allow distinguishing three groups of regions by type of industry: the first group – traditionally industrial provinces with a high level of the industrial economy but with signs of reduced capacity and increasing product innovation (Mazovia, Lower Silesia, Silesia, Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Lodz, Pomerania); the second group – voivodships, which occupy a low share in country’s industry, and are characterized by medium or low values of partial indicators of the current state of labor activity but higher indicators of innovation activity and the strongest dynamics (Subcarpathia, Podlaskia, Opole, Lubusz, Lublin); the third group – voivodships, which are characterized by the non-industrial type of economy and mostly low values of industrial activity (Warmia-Masuria, Swietokrzyskie, West Pomerania, Kuyavia-Pomerania).