Taking into account all the elements of presented defi nition of innova-tion, we can discern their impact on the growth of competitiveness of the econ-omy of the world, national and regional level through the prism of the new innovation strategy, which should also be adopted by companies in the region and contribute to improving their market position. Competitiveness of enter-prises is reinforced by the processes of concentration and modernization, on the corporate agri-food industry, which in the era of global recovery from the crisis should take particular care to its value and the export potential of ag-ri-food products89. Positioning companies in agri-food industry is a vital part of the game market in the era of the dual model of the development of agricul-ture, where the concentration of capital, discounting the benefi ts of scale and competition takes place between operators of still lower transaction costs90. As noted by B. Czyżewski transaction costs in the food industry grew during the economic recovery, for example in 1993-1996 and 2004-2007, and falling phases of stagnation, for example in 1996-2001 and after 200891. In this as-pect of competitiveness is a refl ection of the company to compete for position on the market, and according to the OECD: …the ability of companies, in-dustries, regions, nations and multinational regional associations to generate a relatively high and stable income and employment levels in terms of world market92. Optimization of innovative actions can increase the competitiveness of enterprises, which is determined by internal and external factors93. Very important seems to be the pace and scope of creating and implementing inno-vations that determine the competitive advantage, as pointed out by M. Porter, giving them a key role in building competitive strategy of enterprises94.
During the transformation of the Polish economy has been the trans-formation of almost all sectors of the economy, which was signifi cantly af-fected by privatization and restructuring of enterprises, implying in them modern innovation processes95. In pursuing indications and
recommenda-89 K. Firlej, A. Makarska, Działania innowacyjne fi rm przemysłu spożywczego jako ele-ment ich strategii, “Folia Pomeranae Universitatis Technologiae Stetinensis, Oeconomica”, No. 68, Szczecin 2012, p. 37-46.
90 K. Firlej, Ocena konkurencyjności…, op. cit., p. 163-165.
91 B. Czyżewski, Renty ekonomiczne w gospodarce żywnościowej w Polsce, PWE, Warsza-wa 2013, p. 207-209.
92 A.L. Platonoff , S. Sysko-Romańczuk, B. Moszoro, Innowacyjność polskich fi rm w gospo darce opartej na wiedzy, “Ekonomika i Organizacja Przedsiębiorstw” 2004, No. 1, p. 37-40.
93 K. Firlej, A. Makarska, Działania…, op. cit., p. 37-46.
94 M. Porter, Porter o konkurencji, PWE, Warszawa 2001.
95 K. Firlej, Aspekty innowacyjności jako instrument konkurencyjności regionu małopolskiego [in:] Studia i Materiały Polskiego Stowarzyszenia Zarządzania Wiedzą, Bydgoszcz 2011, p. 40-54.
tions of the EU, already in 2007 in our country, an attempt to promote ac-tivities in the fi eld of innovation and the dissemination of knowledge has been made. Integrator of action was the Ministry of Economy, which is ac-complished as a result of the recommendations of the OECD Ministerial Council, as this has previously accepted “Innovation Strategy”, outlining the main directions of the Member States. As the main guidelines indicated in the document challenges to national economies in a global setting such as changing climate and a growing aging population dynamics96. Following this strategy, the results of science and innovation, trends in national sci-ence and technology policies and innovation, and the design and assessment of innovation policy, taking into account the interactions between politicians and their combination, will be the basis for sustainable economic recovery97. The new strategy assumes that innovation will overground part of social development unifying representatives of different communities, experts, entrepreneurs and scientists. In order to ensure successful implementation and innovation processes in the economy, the regions and individual enter-prises, as indicated should be considered accurate to compose innovation policy. In essence it is the implementation of a national strategy to ensure that the main objective determines that the Polish economy is to be open, knowledge-based and competitive. The relatively low position of Polish economy in terms of innovation is refl ected in the results of research com-missioned by the European Commission98. In pursuing the main goal should be monitored necessary factors which may signifi cantly promote its reach-ing. These include stable macroeconomic conditions in the country and its surroundings, high quality infrastructure and a clear and properly function-ing in practice of the legislative system99.
In our country, since the accession interest in business issues and op-portunities for innovation of its implementation in practice of economic life increased. Managers of companies increasingly point to the innovations that are seen as part of the market game, which is implemented through the im-plementation of modern projects and increasing from year to year the num-ber of registered inventions. As noted by J. Hausner decomposition rate of innovation potential indicates that the only dimensions in which Poland does not invest in the end positions orderings among the countries of the Eu-ropean Union, are the quality of human capital (education), and – a bit lower – investment companies, and in all other dimensions (quality of the research,
96 Ibidem.
97 OECD Science, Technology and Industry, http://www.ncp-incontact.eu/.
98 Innovation Union Scoreboard, 2010, http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/innovation/fi les/ius/ius2010_en.pdf, accessed: 20.10.2013.
99 K. Firlej, A. Makarska, Działania…, op. cit., p. 37-38.
research funding, entrepreneurship and relationships, intellectual resources, economic effects) Poland is at the end, and the lowest in the category of “in-novators” (penultimate place in front of Latvia)100. Unfortunately, still wait-ing for a referral to the positive side of the act of strengthenwait-ing the coopera-tion between science and business, which in the early years, the company applied the Western European and nowadays achieve the benefi ts of this title.
Less than a decade after the accession of Poland to the European Un-ion in Poland becomes noticeable to promote the idea of innovatUn-ion, which is to ensure the emergence of a new economic order based on the restruc-tured economy and modernized enterprises. More than twenty years the life of the Polish economy in market conditions proved to be too short for the poor of the country, in many cases, the backward sectors of the economy, transform it into a modern operating system with the highest world stand-ards. Polish economy still catch up the developed countries of the world, which probably very helpful could be a signifi cant growth in the develop-ment of innovative processes, introduction of modern technological solu-tions, taking care of the absorption of technical innovations and implemen-tation of modern management systems.
Published in 2013, the global ranking of innovation showed distant 49th place in our country in which the member states of the European Union ahead of only Greece101 (fi g. 3).
It is well known that Polish products compete in international markets producing lower price than competitors, which does not bring the intended benefi ts of the producers. Unfortunately, we do not belong to the countries that could boast of signifi cant technical advances, modern infrastructure or properly created institutional conditions. Advantage in this respect will be lost over time and should therefore be permanently seek other ways to compete; they are innovative products with high uniqueness, usefulness or quality. The market should be introduced with modern products whose ap-pearance and quality may vary from the current trends, constantly improved and manufactured using innovative methods.
100 T. Geodecki, G. Gorzelak i in., Kurs na innowacje. Jak wyprowadzić Polskę z innowacyj-nego dryfu, Fundacja Gospodarki i Administracji Publicznej, Kraków 2012, p. 24.
101 Globalny indeks innowacji: Polska za Bułgarią, Rumunią, Barbadosem i Chile, Global-ny indeks innowacyjności, który powstał dzięki współpracy Kornwalijskiego Uniwersytetu, szkoły biznesu INSEAD i Światowej Organizacji Własności Intelektualnej uwzględnia 142 kraje z całego świata. Na czołowych miejscach rankingu znalazły się Szwajcaria, Szwecja i Wielka Brytania, http://wyborcza.biz/biznes/, accessed: 12.12.2013.
Fig. 3. Global Innovation Index in 2012
Source: Globalny indeks innowacji: Polska za Bułgarią, Rumunią, Barbadosem i Chile.
http://wyborcza.biz/biznes/, accessed: 12.12.2013.
Each country involved in trade should take care of the popularization of industries with a high share of R & D, as the country competing on price and low production costs will certainly arrive. In the current fi nancial situ-ation of Polish economy, where it is possible to catch up in many economic activities with the use of EU funds, you can implement a system for moni-toring the Europe 2020 Strategy, which paves the directions of innovation policy in the European Union. It is prepared with a list of indicators that make up the total innovation index (SII), in the context of published annu-ally under the aegis of the European Commission’s Innovation Union Score-board rankings, where in the last edition (IUS 2013) value for the Polish SII was calculated at 0.270, which placed our country at the 24th place among the 27 EU countries, and in relation to the previous year, a decrease of two positions on the list for Slovakia and Lithuania (Fig. 4)102.
102 Konkurencyjna Polska. Jak awansować w światowej lidze gospodarczej?, eds. T. Geo-decki, J. Hausner, Kraków 2013, Fundacja Gospodarki i Administracji Publicznej, p. 94 [as:]
Innovation Union Scoreboard, 2013.
Still predominant in Polish enterprises in the application of the model
“diffusion imitative”, but the premise is moving towards the use of the mo-del “diffusion creative”. Unfortunately, this is typical behaviour for devel-oping countries and new countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and at this stage we should imitate actions practiced in developed EU countries.
The level of investment in research and development (R & D), and their share in relation to GDP is showing very low positions of Poland in the Eu-ropean innovation rankings, because we have one of the last locations in the countries of the European Union. Expenditures on R & D for two decades did not exceed one percent in 2010 amounted to 0.74%, and ten years earlier 0.64%. Still too low to be seen is the behaviour of small and medium-sized enterprises in the fi eld of innovation.
Bulgaria (-1) Romania (-2) Latvia (+2) Poland (-2) Lithuania (+2) Malta (-2) Hungary (0) Slovakia(+3) Greece (0) Czech R. (-1) Portugal (-2) Espania(+2) Italy (+1) Estonia(0) Cyprus (-1) Słowenia (+1) UE France (0) Ireland (-1) Austria (-2) Great Britain (-3) Belgium (-1) Luxembourg (+4) Netherlands (+3) Finlandia(-1) Denmark (-1) Germany (+2) Sweden (0)
0,188 0,221 0,225 0,270 0,280 0,284 0,323 0,337 0,340 0,402 0,406 0,407 0,445 0,500 0,505 0,508 0,544 0,568 0,597 0,602 0,622 0,624 0,626 0,648 0,681 0,718 0,720 0,747
0,8 0,7 0,6 0,5 0,4 0,3 0,2 0,1 0,0
mere innovators moderate innovators followers leaders
* in the brackets the change in ranking according to the previous edition IUS (IUS 2011).
Fig. 4. The overall innovation index (SII) 2013
Source: Konkurencyjna Polska. Jak awansować w światowej lidze gospodarczej?, eds.
T. Geodecki, J. Hausner, Kraków 2013, Fundacja Gospodarki i Administracji Publicznej, p. 94 [as:] Innovation Union Scoreboard, 2013.
Analysing indicator of the amount of developed innovative solutions in this group of companies in the last decade, we note that still execute them at half the EU average, and few of these entities has concluded an agreement on cooperation with other innovative companies or institutions. Positively, however, should be seen increasing levels of education, performance and quality and effi ciency of the fi nancial market institutions negatively while the low uptake of the technology, the so-called technological readiness and continued low quality infrastructure structure. In 2008, less than one fi fth of SMEs companies implemented the product and process innovations de-veloped alone or with other companies, which accounted for about half
lower the number than in the European Union. Not much different situation occurred in the case of entities implementing organizational and market-ing innovation. Positive action should be assessed on Polish exports, which is characterized by a relatively high level of R & D intensity, as over 51%
of Polish exports are products of medium and high technology (called me-dium and high technology, 108% of the EU average), in the case of export port services with high knowledge intensity – post and telecommunica-tions, computer science, the science – their share in Polish exports in 2008 amounted to more than 30%, which accounted for 62% of the average for the countries UE103. However, it should be noted that among the exporting fi rms are mostly actors with the participation of foreign capital, and their main headquarters and R & D departments are located in other countries.
103 Ibidem, p. 38.