INNOVATIONS AS A DETERMINANT OF COMPETITIVENESS OF SERBIA: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS WITH WESTERN BALKAN COUNTRIES AND THE EUROPEAN UNION
INNOVATIONS AS A DETERMINANT OF COMPETITIVENESS OF SERBIA: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS WITH WESTERN BALKAN COUNTRIES AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

Summary/Abstract: Innovations, as a determinant of competitiveness, are one of the fundamental presuppositions for the economic prosperity of every country and the well-being of the population. The creators of the development policies need adequate information relating to all vital determinants of competitiveness, including innovations, in order to formulate effective policies and strategies. Therefore, the World Economic Forum (WEF) annually prepares and presents the Global Competitiveness Report. Thus, based on the information from the WEF reports, the paper explores changes in the level of competitiveness of Serbia (measured by the Global Competitiveness Index - GCI) for the period from 2009 to 2014, in comparison with other Western Balkan countries. Also, an in-depth analysis of the competitiveness of Serbia is carried out in the subindex “Innovation and sophistication factors” as a component of the GCI, considering that in 2014 this subindex for Serbia recorded the lowest value compared with other two subindexes within the GCI (“Basic Requirements” and “Efficiency Enhancers”), and also with other Western Balkan countries. Therefore, there is a need for urgent and significant improvements in the field of innovations as a relevant factor of the GCI in order to improve Serbia's position in the world’s rankings of competitiveness, but also Serbia's position in relation to the more successful countries in the Western Balkans. The goal of the analysis in this paper is to identify the position of Serbia in comparison with other Western Balkan countries in terms of overall competitiveness, and especially in the field of innovation and business sophistication factors as the determinants of the achieved level of national competitiveness. The methods used in this research are the following: descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and benchmarking. The research results show that Serbia has in the aforementioned period achieved an unenviable level of competitiveness. This research can be useful for the creators of development policy for future guidance of the economic and social development of Serbia.

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