Innovation activities of Czech businesses: differences between urban and rural businesses

Abstract

Innovative activities of small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in rural areas and in Czech economy are relatively unexplored areas. Socioeconomic and environmental contributions of SMEs activities can be gained not only by means of ecological innovative activities of rural SMEs. Rural areas are also a suitable localization strategy for obtaining public money from subsidies, as there is no great direct competition and lower costs. SMEs economic contributions are irreplaceable both for urban and rural areas. Socioeconomic impact of ecological innovations for urban and rural areas is connected with the advantages of circular economy, such as reduced energy consumption, less pollution and waste, and well-organized product recycling options after use. The hypotheses are focused on the localization of businesses into rural areas, size of enterprises introducing innovations in the market, and ecological product and processes innovations. Estimation is based on 4 innovation phases as in the case of the general innovation business process. The 2014 data set is provided by the Czech Statistical Office contains the Community Innovation Survey. The results for 2014 indicate that localization does not affect the first phases of the innovation process, and that the innovative activities increase the costs of the R&D activities.

Unravelling open innovation determinants and firm performance relationships in CEE and SEE countries

“…The variable invested in R&D in the regression analysis appears to have a positive and significant relationship with firm performance, which is in accordance with the research conducted by Kmecová and Vokoun (2019) in the Czech Republic. The coefficient of the invest in R&D variable is statistically significant at a 1% level of significance, indicating that companies investing in R&D are 43.8% points more likely to have better performance compared to their counterparts.…”

“…The significance of investment in R&D in our study finds robust support in the works of Kmecová and Vokoun (2019), Krishnan et al . (2009) and Kraus et al .…”

“…The significance of investment in R&D in our study finds robust support in the works of Kmecov a and Vokoun (2019), Krishnan et al (2009) and Kraus et al (2022). These studies substantiate the enduring positive relationship between R&D investments and firm performance, underlining the pivotal role of continuous research and development endeavours (Kmecov a and Vokoun, 2019;Krishnan et al, 2009;Kraus et al, 2022) within the SEE and CEE context.…”

“…Some OI-related studies in CEE countries are mostly focused on specific innovation types, sectors and regions. Kmecová and Vokoun (2019) conducted a study on OI eco-innovations in the Czech Republic and found that these activities have a positive effect on the R&D intensity of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Lesáková et al.…”

Open Innovation in the Visegrád Four Countries: A Literature Review

“…Positive effect of inbound OI practices on eco-innovative performance was confirmed in the study by Leitão et al (2020). Eco-innovation activities focused at new products and production processes contributed to the higher R&D intensity in the Czech SMEs (Kmecová -Vokoun, 2020).…”