Selected Aspects of Innovation Strategies In The Regions – Case of Lower Silesian Region

Abstract

The aim of this article is to discuss the essence and purposefulness of such strategy on the example of the "Regional Innovation Strategy for Lower Silesia Voivodship (region) for the years 2011-2020" and to analyze the changes of the selected indicators that characterize the level of innovation of the region in the period of strategy implementation (in 2006-2015). Three indicators were selected for the analysis - expenditure on R&D, percentage of employees in the research and development sector and percentage of companies that implemented innovations in the studied period. In the case of Lower Silesia Voivodship, based on the indicators selected to illustrate the changes in the level of innovativeness of this region, their high diversity may be concluded. In the case of R&D, there’s a visible tendency (which is different in the scale of entire country) to concentrate activities in the higher education sector - both in terms of the scale of investment and the share of employment. In the face of the unfavourable trends in the scale of entire country, which were initiated by the economic crisis, Lower Silesia has followed a similar path of the drop in innovative activity of the companies.