Towards a Pragmatic Perspective on Business Innovation in Western Balkan Countries: The Case of Albania

Abstract

Recent reports and articles on innovation and innovation management in the Western Balkan countries conclude that innovation is quite limited. It is suggested that the development of a national innovation system is needed to increase innovation capacity and innovation outcomes. However, this is a conventional perspective which has so far not worked. In this article we explore Albania as a Western Balkan case. The aim of the article is to learn from a better contextualization of innovation, by taking into account the specific conditions of the Western Balkan countries and Albania in particular. Results of empirical research confirm that the innovation capacity of Albanian firms is rather minimal indeed. They also provide insights that lead to an alternative perspective of fostering business innovation in Albania; not a focus on building a national innovation system but on a pragmatic 'everyday innovation' approach. This perspective should be relevant for other Western Balkan countries too.

COVID-19 aftermath and tourism innovation in Western Balkans: A commentary

“…Governmental budgets for R&D are minimal, relationships between firms and universities are weak, innovation is often considered as a technical/IT matter, and such themes as service innovation and management innovation are practically undiscovered. WB national innovation systems are inadequate (Marinkovic and Dall, 2014;Nientied and Karafili, 2016;Matusiak and Kleibrink, 2018;OECD et al, 2019) and not geared towards tourism. Associations with the knowledge sector are minimal.…”

Motivation of Knowledge Workers – the Case of Albania

“…The external trade balance of Albania remains unfavourable: in 2017 it was -15.1 % of GDP (World Bank, 2018). Innovation in Albania is still at an early stage of development (Nientied and Karafili, 2016;Matusiak and Kleibrink, 2018). Albania is now connected to the world through the web, and Albanians travel and study abroad -they tend to become dissatisfied with the general economic and business climate in Albania.…”

“…First, this segment of workers adds high values to companies and is therefore a prime target group for management in companies wanting to increase productivity and commitment. Second, also in WB countries' economies, the future of jobs is not in production and low-skilled or middle-skilled level labour, but in the knowledge and creative sectors (WEF, 2016;Nientied and Karafili, 2016;Lewandowski, 2017) as popular authors such as Pink (2011) andHamel (2012) argued before. Morgan (2014) identifies five trends that shape the future of work: new behaviours fashioned by social media and the web, technologies, the millennial workforce with new attitudes and expectations, mobility regarding place of work and globalization.…”