Innovative performance in the CEE countries : a cross-country study using fuzzy-set theory

Sammanfattning: This thesis investigates the existence of innovative performance and its institutional foundations in seven Central- and East European countries that are in a state of transformation since 1989. Innovative performance may be the key feature for these countries ability to develop a robust economy that can diminish the risks of unemployment. The concept of innovative performance is deduced from the global trends of economy and technology. Unemployment, Globalisation, Economic growth, Technology-gap theory and Innovation concepts are the theoretical entities in the body of theories of the global trends of economy and technology. The thesis is also testing a new method for social science, the fuzzy-set social science methodology. This methodology is supposed to ease the difficult explanations between ideas/theory and empirical findings. The result of this investigation is that it exists innovative performance in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania, at different levels. These different levels go hand in hand with the presence of a civil society and the geographic location in Europe on an east-west axis. The result shows not surprisingly that the further east the country is located the weaker are the institutional foundations and the innovative performance.