Innovation in Selected European Countries and Position of Czech Businesses

Innovation and the introduction of new processes are an essential part of the functioning of enterprises. The main aim of this paper is to evaluate the position of enterprises from the Czech Republic within Central Europe in terms of innovation and the introduction of new business processes, and to identify whether there are significant differences between enterprises from individual countries. To achieve this aim, harmonized secondary data from the CIS 2022 survey and descriptive statistics, together with the chi-square test of independence, are used. The Oslo Manual is used to classify particular types of innovation. The results show the dominance of Germany, both in absolute terms and in intensity. Slovakia lags significantly behind other Central European countries. Process innovations are most often represented in all countries, while Czech enterprises are well above average in marketing innovations, and they also stand out in product innovations. It is recommended to strengthen organizational and process innovations, in particular in order to create a suitable innovation mix leading to increased competitiveness.