Location of a Competitor and the Regional Innovation Activity of Industrial Systems in Transition Country–Poland’s Case Study

Aims: Spatial proximity with competitive enterprises is a factor influencing the acceleration of the technological progress in industrial systems in the most developed countries, but is it like that also in Poland? The main objective of the conducted studies was the identification of the effect of distance from the nearest competitor on the innovation activity of the selected regional industrial systems in Poland.

Study Design: Surveys were conducted in the years of 2007-12 on a group of 2 434 industrial companies in four diverse provinces located in different parts of the Poland-Masovian, Greater Poland, Silesian and Swietokrzyskie.

Place and Duration of Study: Faculty of Economics and Management (university in Zielona Gora), between October 2007 and June 2012.

Methodology: The methodical side of analyses was based on the theory of probability – the probit modelling.

Results: The obtained results of the analyses indicate, that both the location and the current level of the economic development of the analysed provinces do not influence the diversity of the innovation activity of the regional industrial systems. Therefore, the discussed regularities in Poland have the system nature (against isolated nature). The challenge to creating cluster structures and facilitate their development in Poland in the horizontal approach, taking into account the obtained results of studies, will be extremely difficult to achieve. The knowledge deficit and low own abilities create areas of local system technological gaps – impossible to take innovation action between competitor in the local spatial proximity. The regional level in any case did not show significant statistical co-dependencies, what proves that this level of aggregation currently remains neutral for the implementation of the innovation activity. Just the beyond regional distance from nearest competitor (especially international) allow the acceleration of innovation processes. So, industrial enterprises in Poland are much more connected to the international innovation networks, than are depending on local or regional technological trajectories.

Conclusion: The obtained research results indicated a different effect of the spatial proximity of competitors in Polish regions on the innovation activity of the industrial systems compared to the most developed countries. A new showing up technologies should improve that image of our future. Strong international connection will be more important for innovation activity and knowledge flow in Poland, than close physical distance to the potential collaboration firms.