Sectoral Patterns of Innovation: Comparing High and Low Technology Sectors’ Firms in the New Member States
Sectoral Patterns of Innovation: Comparing High and Low Technology Sectors’ Firms in the New Member States

Summary/Abstract: This paper shows the differences in innovation patterns among firms operating in low and medium technology (LMT) sectors and high technology (HT) sector in three New EU Member States: the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. It is based on a survey of 358 firms which operate in both sectors and takes into account innovation inputs, including cooperation among firms in R&D activities, the benefits of cooperation with business partners, innovation outputs and international competitiveness. Employing cluster analysis, we identified, characterized and compared five types of innovation patterns in each sector. The paper shows that external knowledge plays an important role in innovation activities in both sectors. The ability to cooperate with business partners and to use external knowledge are more important for the international competitiveness of the NMS’ products than in-house innovation capabilities. However some in-house R&D activities of the firms, also in LMT sector, are important precondition for their international competitiveness.

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