Determinants of Firms´ Innovation Activities in V4 Countries

Anotace: Innovation is considered to be the driving force of competitiveness and growth of firms as well as countries. However, despite these benefits of innovation, not all firms undertake innovation projects. There are several barriers and factors determining the involvement of firms in innovation activities. The aim of the paper is to examine determinants affecting involvement of firms in innovation activities in V4 countries. The emphasis is put on issues that present the most pronounced barriers to commercialization of innovation. The analysis is based on data obtained from the Innobarometer 2016 survey. The paper is focused on examination of several determining factors that are studied for a variety of firms. These factors are represented mainly by type of innovation or innovation barriers and their impact on involvement of firms in innovation activities. The analysis is based on several probit models of micro-level data. It seems that R&D, turnover and innovation investments are among the main determinants of innovation activities of firms in V4 countries. We have also found that in V4 countries, product innovation was introduced mostly by smaller firms while larger firms tend to focus on process innovation. The main major barriers of innovation encountered by firms seem to be the lack of human resources and the fact that the market is dominated by competition.