The concept of technological proximity in the development of European Union national innovative systems

Abstract

Abstract The development of national innovative systems is intended to solve a number of issues: from decreasing socio-economic inequality in countries and regions to creating environments favourable to new high-tech production and diversification of industrial composition. Determination of the possibilities for expanding the set of innovative types of economic activity must be scientifically substantiated, since significant financial, material and human resources may be consumed in creating and supporting new economic sectors within the framework of state policy. This article contains an attempt to create a mechanism for revealing promising trends in the development of an innovative economic sphere, taking into account comparative advantages in the commodity composition of exports by determining technological proximity indicators. The article aims to substantiate the possibility of using the concept of technological proximity in developing national innovative systems. The study employs technological proximity indicators based on the revealed comparative advantages (RCA) of countries by commodity groups of export. A matrix of technological proximity in the industrial fields (at a six-unit level) for 28 countries of the European Union in 2007–18 was made. The results revealed comparative advantages by groups of high-tech products in EU countries in real time. The analysis of technological proximity in the industrial sector has shown the types of economic activity connected with the innovative sector, which was used to determine the countries’ degree of participation in the manufacture of high-tech products. The proposed mechanism can be used in the development and implementation of national and regional policy in the sphere of innovative systems, since it allows promising areas for creation and support of new high-tech productions to be determined.