Innovative Capacity and Innovation Systems and the Economic Development Levels of European Countries
The claim that differences in the level of technological development between countries are the main source of diversification of the level of their economic development is already rooted both in economic studies as well as in economic policy. A positive relationships between these areas is evidenced by the results of a significant amount of research which has been published in recent decades1. This research focused mainly on comparing the impact of various factors, including variously defined and classified innovation and technological capacities of countries on differences in the level of economic development. Therefore, the subjective approach has been dominant, while little space has been devoted to the importance of innovation activity of major groups of actors of innovation systems from the point of view of the development of economies of individual countries. The literature on the subject allows us only indirectly to infer that the most important role in this regard should be attributed to the corporate sector because some of the identified innovation capacities of countries solely or largely depend on the business characteristics of companies. The aim of this study is to examine the importance of innovation capacities of European economies in the cross section of three major elements of the innovation system corresponding to the sectors of companies, research and the government, from the point of view of their economic development. Thus,