ANALYSIS OF RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN INNOVATIVE AND DIGITAL PERFORMANCE OF EU-27 COUNTRIES

Abstract

Background: The global digital economy is developing quickly, and innovation plays a crucial role in today's economic growth. Aims: The main aim was to investigate the interrelationships between the digital and innovation performance of the EU countries using the selected global indices (DESI, GII, SII). The main aim was fulfilled by 2 partial goals and subsequently set 2 hypotheses. Methods: To verify the hypotheses, we used the Kendall Tau coefficient (τ), panel data regression analysis and through this analysis, we created 3 models. Sample: We have chosen the EU-27 countries for our analyses. The length of the analyzed period was 5 years (2016-2020). Results: To select the resulting model from the 3 proposed models (Model 1 (OLS), Model 2 (FEM), and Model 3 (REM)), test criteria such as F-test, Breusch-Pagan test, and Hausman test were used. We consider Model 2 to be the most suitable model, which is the result of the Fixed Effects Model (FEM). Conclusions: The results of our analyses confirmed that a higher statistically significant positive relationship was identified between the digital performance of the EU-27 countries and their innovation performance evaluated using the SII versus the innovation performance using the GII.