A typology of the Baltic region states according to excellence in science and technology

Abstract

Global manufacturing systems function in such a way that countries develop industrial spe­cialisation, which leads to territorial disparities. The countries of the Baltic region are no exception despite their strong economic ties and developed industries. A signifi­cant element of any manufacturing system is its scientific and technological subsystem, which is described in this article for ten countries (Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Nor­way, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia), based on an analysis of a clustered set of national character­istics: R&D financing and staffing in the scientific and technological subsystem. A total of ten indicators, absolute and relative, are investigated. The study relies on combined grouping, graphical and cluster analysis to build a typology of countries and distinguish their types ac­cording to their scientific and technological excellence As a result, a typology of the countries of the Baltic Sea region has been pro­posed and types of countries with similar characteristics have been identified: the two main types are traditional market economies and post-socialist countries, whose common features are observed in all sets of main characteristics. Several subtypes are described as well. The research draws on 2010—2019 (2020) statistical data from the European Statistical Office (Eurostat), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Russia’s Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat).