Research background: The uncertainty in the environment and rapid changes have impact on firms, regions and countries. The necessity to adapt to new conditions requires a stimulation of actions aimed at enhancing competitiveness and economic growth. In this respect, the European Union strategy called Europe 2020 should be mentioned. Regarding the role of firms' innovation activities in economic growth of regions and countries, substantial importance was attached to how innovation activities of Polish firms differ from those from the other EU countries with a level of innovation similar to Poland. Here, a particular emphasis was put on moderate innovator countries.

Research background: Firms’ innovation activities play an important role in fostering firms’ competitiveness and enhancing economic growth of regions and countries. Regarding the significance of the issue, it is essential to explore indicators of firms’ innovation activities. Here, special attention was given to external linkages and intellectual assets. In the study, particular emphasis was put on firms from the Czech Republic and Poland as the countries distinguished by similar innovation performance. Purpose of the article: The aim of this paper is to explore whether external link-ages and intellectual assets impact on innovation activities of Czech and Polish firms. Methods: In the study, the Cobb-Douglas function was employed. The study used data from the European Innovation Scoreboard 2018 with regard to firms’ innovation activities. In particular, special stress was put on variables related to external linkages and intellectual assets such as: innovative SMEs collaborating with others, private co-funding of public R&D expenditures, PCT patent applications and trademark applications. The time period was 2008–2015. Findings & Value added: This paper contributes to the existing literature by providing new insight on issues connected with indicators of firms’ innovation activities. The results reveal statistical significance of selected variables connected with external linkages and intellectual assets on innovation activities of Czech and Polish firms. These findings have policy and practical implications. There is a need to further stimulate, among others, the linkages between firms and universities, research organisations, institutional environment.

Strong relationships between innovation of firms and sustainable development of regions and countries have priority in issues related to firms’ innovation performance. In this paper, particular emphasis is given to Poland and the Czech Republic as countries with similar innovation performance. Specifically, it seems interesting to identify the extent to which human resources and the research system in these countries matter in firms’ innovation activities. Thus, the aim of the paper is to test whether human resources and the research system affect Polish and Czech firms’ innovation activities. The data were sourced from the European Innovation Scoreboard (2018, 2019) for the period of 2010–2016. A set of variables concerning human resources and the research system were employed. The hypotheses were tested with the Cobb–Douglas function. This paper contributes to the existing literature by adding to studies that seek to identify determinants of firms’ innovation activities. The findings indicate the statistical significance of such a variable related with human resources, as lifelong learning for innovation activities of firms from Poland and such a variable connected with the research system, as the top 10% most cited publications on Czech firms’ innovation activities. The paper has practical and policy implications. There is a need, among others, to strengthen knowledge diffusion processes between firms and universities, research organisations, and institutional environments in order to improve innovation activities of firms.

This study aims to assess whether research and development (R&D) personnel from firms, the research system, and governmental institutions contribute to innovation activities of firms from the Visegrad Group countries. Research Design & Methods: Fixed effects panel regression with robust standard errors was used for hypothesis testing over the period 2009-2017. The data for the study was extracted from Eurostat, the European Innovation Scoreboard and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development with a particular focus on R&D personnel from firms, the research system, and governmental institutions. The empirical analysis was focused on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Findings: The results provide evidence about significant linkage between R&D personnel from governmental institutions and innovation activities of firms from the Visegrad Group countries. The research also highlights the lack of a significant effect of R&D personnel from firms and the research system on firms' innovation activities in the analysed former Soviet satellite economies distinguished by innovation performance below the average for the European Union. Implications & Recommendations: Policy and practical implications that should be indicated include the necessity to further develop knowledge cooperation between governmental institutions and firms in order to reinforce innovation processes. There is also a need to enhance cooperation between the research system and firms to support SMEs from the Visegrad Group countries with highly-skilled human resources. Contribution & Value Added: This article adds to the literature on drivers and sources of firms' innovation activities by providing new empirical evidence on the effect of R&D personnel on innovation activities of firms from the Visegrad Group countries, which are former Soviet satellite economies with a moderate level of innovativeness and belong to peripheral countries in the European Union.

The main purpose of the paper is R&D expenditures analysis at the level of Poland’s voivodships. First, the significance of R&D expenditures in development of region competitiveness is considered. Next, intramural expenditures on R&D by NACE 2007 sections and by fields of science in particular are examined within a voivodship perspective. Subsequently, a comparison of R&D expenditures between Poland’s voivodships is conducted. Particular attention is paid to such variables as: persons employed in R&D per 1000 economically active persons, units with research and development activity by sectors of performance, intramural expenditures on R&D per capita, extramural expenditures on R&D and intramural expenditures on R&D in the business enterprises sector. The study is based on cluster analysis, which provided a cluster distance matrix and is based on data from the Central Statistical Office of Poland — Local Data Bank.