Abstract
Economic growth is a process of long-term transformation shaped by complex interactions between technology, economy, institutions and social factors. A considerable number of studies have shown that among these factors technological advancement and particularly new knowledge generation capabilities may be one of the most important determinants of economic growth and development. Significant disparities in development levels can be observed between Polish regions. The aim of this paper is to look for the sources of these disparities in regional capacity for new knowledge creation. The research method adopted in this paper is based on statistical analysis of the relationship between variables describing new knowledge generation capabilities and GDP per capita in two periods: 2003–2004 and 2012–2013 in 16 Polish regions. Correlation and regression analysis results show that there is a strong positive relationship between regional differences in new knowledge generation capabilities and variations in GDP per capita. The relationship is very strong when one considers three aspects of these capabilities: R&D employment and R&D expenditures denoting inputs to the new knowledge generation process and patenting activity representing its output. These results may serve as an indication for innovation policy at regional level.
Highlights
Over the last 30 years, the innovation system concept has diffused quite rapidly among both researchers and policy makers
What is more troubling is the fact that these disparities have not diminished over time – variation coefficient of GDP per capita in 2000–2012 period has grown from 21,6% to 25,2%, it needs to be mentioned that its accelerated growth has been observed since 2009 – after the world financial and economic crisis (Figure 2)
Economic growth is a process of long-term transformation shaped by the complex interactions between technology, economy, institutions and social factors
Summary
Over the last 30 years, the innovation system concept has diffused quite rapidly among both researchers and policy makers. The innovation system concept was introduced by Lundvall (1985, 1988) and Freeman (1987), and further developed by Nelson (1993) and Edquist (1997). The concept was first applied to the national level and the term “National System of Innovation” was used. Other authors took a slightly different approach to the systemic determinants of the knowledge production processes and the concepts of Triple Helix (Etzkowitz & Laydesdorff, 1997), technological systems (Carlsson & Stankiewicz, 1991), sectoral innovation systems (Breschi & Malerba, 1997) and regional innovation systems (Cooke, 1995) emerged, giving rise to a considerable body of literature and debates on the theme of innovation systems
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