LAW AND ADMINISTRATION IN POST-SOVIET EUROPE T HE JOURNAL OF KOLEGIUM JAGIELLONSKIE TORUNSKA SZKOLA WYZSZA V OL. II: 42–50 DOI: 10.1515/lape-2015-0005 Adam Strzelecki Kolegium Jagiellońskie Toruńska Szkoła Wyższa Th e development of innovation and entrepreneurship in the voivodeship of Kuyavia and Pomerania Key words: innovation, product and process innovation, industrial parks, technology parks, business incubators 1. Introduction ment of innovation and entrepreneurship. Th ey are supported fi nancially, organizationally, logistically and Innovativeness as a factor of local and regional devel- personally by the entities of local government, putting opment requiring institutional stimulation and one can into eff ect – as their own task – pro-development lo- say it is even an act of creation. As can be concluded cal and regional policy. At the same time, the possibili- from Polish Innovation Economic Effi ciency Strategy1, ties guaranteed by the funds from European Union are a series of serious challenges emerged during the de- widely taken advantage of. Undoubtedly, it has a posi- velopment of Poland. Th e possibilities of contributing tive impact on the local employment market and within to the economic growth based on relatively low cost it there will be many job positions and the decrease of of work (in comparison to the majority of European employment rate. Th us, an interest subject to research is Union member countries). Poland occupies a disadvan- the phenomenon of supporting the development of in- tageous position in the latest innovation rating of EU novation in the voivodeship of Kuyavia and Pomerania, member countries2. Poland was considered as so-called especially in the greater metropolitan area. moderate innovator, and the value of the synthetic indi- Th e aim of this research is to review the existing cator of innovation being 0,296 (European Union aver- forms of innovation and the evaluation of their contri- age being 0,539) managed to surpass only 4 member bution to the economic growth. Th e method adopted countries of the Union. was the analysis of collected data and my own consider- Within the nominated associations, diff erent kinds ations as well as the conclusions I noticed while work- of organizations and institutions, there appear some ing with my students. centres and business incubators aimed at the develop- Faced with the competitiveness of developing coun- tries, basing development on the growth of innova- 1 Strategia Innowacyjności i Efektywności Gospodarki tion, which should be bigger than nowadays, ensures (project issued on 17–05–2012), Ministerstwo Gospodarki a chances to take the competitive advantage by the en- [Ministry of Economy] 2012. 2 Innovation Union Scoreboard 2011, PRO INNO Eu- terprises – not only in the voivodeship of Kuyavia and rope 2012. Pomerania but also in whole Poland. Th at growth of Adam Strzelecki: The development of innovation and entrepreneurship 43 innovation allows the optimal use of the resources of formation of the so-far possibilities into new ones and knowledge, work, capital and materials. Similarly to the application of new knowledge in the process of Poland, the voivodeship of Kuyavia and Pomerania has production4. Th e process of innovation – according to a disadvantageous position as far innovation ratings go. E. Okoń-Horodyńska consists of the following parts5: One can conclude from the statistics published in 2009 – the invention as the new technical solution not and based on the synthetic indicator of innovation that patented yet, the voivodeship is subsumed under the category of the – the innovation, that is the implementation of the least innovative – like the majority of voivodeships in invention into production process, Poland. Slightly better evaluations were reached by only – project, introducing the new model of a product 5 regions: Mazovia, Pomerania, Lesser Poland, Silesia as a result of innovation, and Lower Silesia3. – diff usion of promotion and the selling of the product. In theories and in the professional liteterature of 2. Th e concept of innovation economy, defi nitions – in terms of both supply and de- mand – of the innovation activities are operative. Th e Innovations refl ect – thanks to their numbers – the supply defi nition according to J.A. Schumpeter6 re- level of innovation of a given economy. Each developed gards a certain chain of events as an innovation process, country attempts to increase its level of innovation of its which involves economy because it directly infl uences the competitive- – innovation involving the emergence of an idea, ness of the whole country. Th e concept of innovation – the innovation being the incarnation of an idea is derived from Latin, where innovare means “creating – limitation or diff usion involving the innovation something”. Mostly, in the defi nition of innovation, it being made common is underlined that innovation is a process involving the In that autonomous process, except for the inven- transformation of existing possibilities into new ideas tion itself, the presence of an entrepreneur who can take and their practical implementation. Th e concept of in- advantage an innovation in the production process, novation may refer to launching a new product or the considering the demand of the public sector for innova- implementation of new and considerably improved tive solutions, is necessary. method of production. From the point of view of demand, according to Product innovation is launching a product or a ser- P. Drucker7, the innovation process is a chain of events vice which are new or considerably improved with re- taken in market processes where the implementation of spect to their qualities or applications (improvements an innovation allows the entreprenuer to obtain the ad- pertaining to technical specifi cations, components, vantage in competitiveness. materials, embedded software, the easiness of operation However, the broadest defi nition of innovation can or other functional properties). Process innovation is be found in the specifi cations by the implementation of new or considerably improved Joseph Schumpeter8, and that is: method of production or supply (the improvement – the introduction of the new products or the im- pertaining to technology, devices and/or software). provement of the already existing ones, Marketing innovation is the implementation of new – the improvement of the implementation of the marketing method pertaining to considerable changes new production process, in the project/structure of the product or in packag- ing, distribution, promotion or price strategy. Orga- 4 D. Begg, S. Fisher, R. Dornbush, Makroekonomia, nization innovation is the implementation of the new Warszawa 1997, p. 34. organizational method within the policies adopted by 5 E. Okoń-Horodyńska, A. Zachorowska-Mazurkiewicz a company, in the organization of the workplace or in (ed.) Innowacje w rozwoju gospodarki i przedsiębiorstw: siły the relations with one’s environment. motoryczne i bariery, Instytut Wiedzy i Innowacji, Warsza- In science, one often uses the defi nition according wa 2007. 6 J. Schumpeter, Teoria rozwoju gospodarczego, PWN, to which innovation is a process involving the trans- Warszawa 1960, p. 104. 7 P.F. Drucker,Innowacje i przedsiębiorczość. Praktyka 3 European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) 2009, PRO i zasady, PWE, Warszawa 1992, p. 42–45. INNO Europe 2010. 8 J. Schumpeter, op. cit., p. 104. 44 Law and administration in post-soviet Europe – working out a new manner of distributing prod- 3. Th e organization of innovative activities ucts, in the voivodeship of Kuyavia – opening a new market, and Pomerania – making use of new materials, raw materials for production, In the area of the voivodeship of Kuyavia and Pomer- According to Ewa Okoń-Horodyńska, one can dis- ania, there are 188,4 thousand economic entities tinguish three sources of innovation and these are registered12,and among them 94,7% are entities em- – research and development (R and D); ploying up to 9 000 people, 4,3% of them employ from – purchasing new know-how in the forms of pat- 10 to 49 people, and 0,9% from 50 to 349 people. 233 ents, licenses and technological services etc., entities employ at least 250 employees, which number – obtaining the so-called material technology, that of employers is tantamount to 0,1% of all registered. is innovative devices and machines with the up- Th at structure does not diverge far from the statistics graded technical parameters valid for the whole country. Th e number of entities Innovations imply hard, purposeful and focused ef- registered under REGON (National Business Regis- forts requiring knowledge, conscientiousness, persever- try Number) from the overall 10 000 people in 2010, ance and involvement: they require the innovators to reached in that region 8999 and was 125 lower than the take advantage of their greatest skills and they are the national average (1024) [only Warmia and Mazury had results evoked in the economy and society because they a lower result from all the neighboring voivodeships]. entail the changes in human behavior of both entre- Th e voivodeship of Kuyavia and Pomerania occupies preneurs and consumers9. Th ey are able to make our the middle position in terms of socio-economic devel- life both easier and more diffi cult through the constant opment – that is it has 4,7% share in contributing to complication in the environment. Sensu stricte defi ni- Polish National Gross Product. It plays a crucial role tion of innovation skips the innovations