Implementation of innovations in enterprises using the EU funds: A comparative analysis

Marcin Piątkowski

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: The European Union sees the role of innovations as measurably influencing the improvement of social and economic development in the regions of its member states. Actions that promote the implementation of innovations in the SME sector as one of the elements having a positive impact on the European Union's cohesion policy have a special role in supporting enterprises. Therefore, the EU operational programmes dedicated to small and medium-sized enterprises are a valuable source of external financing for innovations in these entities. The implementation of innovative investment projects positively influences the development of enterprises. A company resistant to implementing innovations may lose its competitive position on the market and slow down its development. The aim of this article is to conduct a comparative analysis of the implementation of innovative investments between the enterprises that received financial assistance from the European Union in relation to the enterprises that implemented innovations using other sources of financing. The study shows that enterprises covered by financial support from operational programmes have a higher level of innovative investments than other economic entities. Companies receiving EU aid are more often implementing production innovations among all four types of innovations as compared to other enterprises. In addition, it was found that in the lack of financial support from the EU, almost half of the companies would not be able to implement innovations as such. Therefore, the issue of innovations implemented in enterprises with the use of the EU financial aid should be considered as a currently relevant topic and an extremely important one from the standpoint of entrepreneurship development. This study should be considered unique, as there are no studies, to the best of the author's knowledge, containing comparative analyses in this area.

Keywords: implementing innovation; investments; enterprises; entrepreneurship; SMEs; EU subsidies; operational programmes; Poland; Małopolska region; comparative analysis; competitive advantage; financial support (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D92 L20 M21 O33 O39 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-ino and nep-sbm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in Journal of International Studies 13.2(2020): pp. 109-126

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:101883

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