Human Capital, the Creative Class and Innovation in Polish Regions

The role of human capital in generating development processes has grown with the increased importance of knowledge in specific economic processes. One of the major carrier of knowledge resources is a human, as only humans having access to information and data are able to process and interpret them so as to create knowledge. Therefore, human capital is regarded as the ‘creator’ of knowledge, so the paper presents human capital as a factor promoting innovation. The purpose of this paper is to operationally define the concept of the creative class, demonstrate its geographic distribution in Poland and to evaluate its impact on the level of innovation displayed by Polish regions. Using the collected data, the relationship between existence of the creative class and the level of innovation in Polish regions was analyzed. Data pertaining to the year 2012 has shown that Mazovian voivodship, with the largest number of dynamically operating business entities registered in the National Official Register of Business Entities (REGON) and classified as belonging to the creative class, is the most innovative region among all regions in Poland. The analysis points to relationships between existence of the creative class and the level of regional innovation. Distinguishing the creative class in the economy and learning about its impact on the level of region’s innovation is an important source of information both for enterprises, as well as to officials dealing with administration of cities and regions.