Western Balkan countries’ innovation as determinant of their future growth and development

Abstract

The Western Balkan (WB) countries (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia) have been trying to become members of the EU for a long time, but they are increasingly moving away from the EU average in terms of development level. The question is whether these countries will be able to catch up with the EU countries in the near future and how they will do it. The reason for such results should be searched into insufficient innovation in these countries. This research aims to perform a comparative analysis of the capabilities and efficiency of the National Innovation System (NIS) in WB and CEE countries using the entropy-based PROMETHEE method for ranking. The rankings are performed using the two most reputable 2022 reports in this area: Global Innovation Index (GII) and European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS). For summarizing the results, the Borda rule is applied. The ranking results for both NIS capabilities and NIS efficiency indicate that WB countries are at the bottom of the rankings, having considerable disadvantages compared to CEE countries. Certain recommendations and guidelines for policymakers in these countries for improving innovation in the future have been defined according to practices from identified benchmarking countries.