Regional Differences in Innovation Activities of Industrial Enterprises in Poland

The aim of this paper is to examine regional differences in innovation activities of Polish enterprises in 2004-2010 on the basis of statistical data published by the CSO. The survey covered such issues as: expenditures on innovation activities (level and structure), the share of innovation-active enterprises, the types of innovations, as well as the objectives and effects of innovation policy. The analysis shows that: the level of innovativeness of the Polish economy is still underdeveloped, the innovation structure is wrong (companies allocate most of their funds in the purchase of fixed assets, and only about 10% on R&D), Polish companies are selling too few (and ever fewer) innovative products. The disparities between the expenditure on innovative activities in different voivodeships are significant. Three groups of voivodeships can be distinguished – highly innovative (Lower Silesian, Masovian, Pomeranian, Silesian), moderately innovative, and poorly innovative (Podlaskie, Swietokrzyskie, Warmian-Masurian, Lubush, Opolskie and West Pomeranian). In addition, the disparities between the most and least innovative voivodeships are increasing