Competitiveness In The Context Of Human Potential In The Slovak Republic

In developed economies, innovation is the main means of achieving the competitiveness of companies and countries. The achievement of economic growth and development is linked to radical innovations that change established patterns of behaviour, have an impact on job creation and the development of regions and countries. The European Innovation Scoreboard provides a comparative assessment of research and innovation performance in EU countries. It assesses the relative strengths and weaknesses of national innovation systems and helps countries identify areas they need to address. The Slovak Republic has long been one of the EU countries that lags behind the EU average in terms of innovation performance and belongs to the group of moderate innovators whose performance is 10 % to 50 % below the EU average. The aim of the paper is to analyse the innovation performance of Slovakia and its regions in comparison with the EU average in the selected period, to specify the strengths and weaknesses of Slovakia's innovation performance and their dynamics in the period under review.