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This article deals with innovation performance and its measurement. The objective is to present the measuring of innovation performance as it is implemented in today's Czech business environment. It begins with a comprehensive theory and the definition of essential terms. The theoretical part is followed by the analysis of the current state of the issue from the perspective of enterprises in the Czech Republic. The analysis consists of four own primary questionnaire surveys. The research outputs reveal weaknesses in current approaches to innovation effectiveness measurement. Our enterprises use all possible means to increase productivity and achieve operational excellence. However, they tend to neglect the important area of research and development. It has been proven, with help of questionnaire surveys, that many enterprises still do not measure innovation performance despite the importance of innovation as an engine of growth. Only a few organisations appear to have an effective system for measuring their overall innovation performance. JEL

The paper presents an overview of studies that have described the emergence of innovative performance measurement systems. It is dedicated to the issue of potential implementation of Balanced Scorecard as a strategic management control system in Czech small and medium-sized enterprises. The framework is based on literature review and analysis about traditional management control systems, their pros and cons, and modern methods of performance measurement, such as Balanced Scorecard. Numerous publications discuss its potential advantages and recommend its implementation. On the other hand, there exist huge limitations for small and medium-sized enterprises, such as time, organization and money. Benefits resulting from successful Balanced Scorecard implementation must overweigh the costs of designing, implementing, and using it. Therefore, the paper is supposed to motivate researchers to conduct more large scale studies in the area of innovative performance measurement systems implementation in different business sector and areas.

In the modern globalized world, innovation is a basic prerequisite for economic development and the preservation of competitiveness. However, there is still no generally accepted definition of innovation or the innovation process; individual authors use their own definitions, often formed from different concepts. This paper compares these definitions using methods of analysis and synthesis, constructing its own conceptual framework of the innovation process reflecting the key characteristics that are identical or similar in many of the compared definitions. When constructing a new definition and model, it is necessary to bear in mind that innovation is not an isolated activity but rather an entire process or even sequence of processes. With true innovation, every partial process must be successfully completed. This process as a whole becomes the starting point for further research, measurement and the management control of innovation performance under the postdoc research project “Innovation Process Performance Assessment: a Management Control System Approach in the Czech Small and Medium-sized Enterprises” No. 13- 20123P of the Czech Science Foundation

ABSTRACT. The paper deals with the issue of innovation performance measurement and management control and takes as its starting point the current state of affairs and specific conditions arising from today's business environment. Based on the findings from longterm empirical research carried out under the auspices of the Faculty of Business and Management, Brno University of Technology and Czech Scientific Foundation it provides an overview of the issues related to innovation performance measurement and management control. On the basis of desk-based research and empirical studies, a management control system approach to innovation performance measurement suitable for Czech business environment called the Innovation Scorecard is being proposed.