R&D expenditure as a determinant of the aggregate innovation index in the V4 countries

Abstract

Innovation is critical to modern economies’ development; new process requirements within Industry 4.0 highlight its significance and necessity. This study aims to identify the relationship between R&D expenditure and the aggregate innovation index in the V4 countries. The statistical data from 2014 to 2021 are taken from the European Commission and Eurostat databases. The analysis focuses on identifying the degree of correlation between the standardized score of the Aggregate Innovation Index and the amount of R&D expenditure in countries of the Visegrad Group. The study uses the following methods: the Shapiro-Wilk test (to verify the normality of the samples), Pearson’s correlation coefficient (to check the degree of tightness of dependency), the Tukey test (to examine which countries have statistically significant differences), and chi-squared test (Χ2-test). Among the V4 countries, the Czech Republic was the best performer in the aggregate innovation index. Hungary showed the second-highest score, Slovakia ranked third place, and Poland had the lowest score. The findings indicate a positive correlation between R&D expenditures and the aggregate innovation index in all V4 countries. However, the relationship is statistically significant only in the Czech Republic and Poland. These results were confirmed by the Tukey test of differences within the correlation coefficients, which showed only a statistically significant difference within the correlation coefficients between Poland and Slovakia (1.790) and between Poland and Hungary (–1.640), respectively. AcknowledgmentThis study was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic [grant VEGA No 1/0357/21], “Multiplier effects of human capital quality on economic performance and competitiveness of the Slovak economy.”