Abstract:

The Innovation performance of Slovakia deteriorated in the years 2018 - 2022. European Innovation Scoreboard 2022 evaluates Slovakia as rank 23 (Nr. 3 in the group of Emerging Innovators) compared to the rank 22 in 2018 and Czechia has kept the rank 14 (Nr. 3 in the group of Moderate Innovators) as in 2019. On the contrary Austria improved to the rank 8 (Nr. 3 in the group of Strong Innovators) compared to the rank 9 in 2018. Inspite of progress in some innovation indices the innovation performance of Slovakia in the period 2018 – 2021 improves too slowly. The aim of this paper is an analysis of key factors of innovation performance and digitalization results of Slovakia compared to those of Czechia and Austria. Special attention will be paid to the weaknesses of Slovakia and possibilities of their improvement in business R&D expenditures and capacities, knowledge and technology transfer from academia to industry, demand of enterprises for innovations, startup environment and government support of R&D and innovations as a base for recommendations on a new National Innovation Strategy based on similar strategic documents elaborated in Czechia and Austria.

Methodology:
Comparative analysis of key factors of current innovation performance of Slovakia, Czechia and Austria will be based on the secondary data from relevant international sources (European Innovation Scoreboard, Digital Economy and Society Index) and further relevant strategic documents on research and innovations.

Results:
The conclusions from the analysis will serve as a base for recommendations on National Innovation Strategy for the period 2023 to 2030 aiming at improvement of the innovation performance of Slovakia.

Keywords:

Innovation performance, innovation strategy, digitalization of economy, SMEs, research and innovation financing.