This paper studies the determinants of innovation activities in Central European economies at the firm, sectoral, country and international levels. It focuses on innovation activities in four countries, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, and Slovakia. Our dataset includes data from the three waves (2010, 2012, 2014) of the Community Innovation Survey (CIS), in a total of 58,880 observations, which we combined with 2-digit NACE rev. 2 sectoral variables (Herfindahl index, average values of age, profits, intangible assets, shares of large and medium-sized enterprises). These variables were calculated from 910,731 observations originating from the Amadeus database. We used Heckman and Bivariate Probit estimation procedures to observe the dynamics of new-to-the-market product and process innovation over time and at different levels of the innovation ecosystem. We focused on sectoral variables and found that determinants of innovation activity differed substantially. Our analysis documented the fluctuation of sectoral variables over time, which aligns with evolutionary theories. At the international level, the results suggest a disequilibrium effect of some sectoral variables over time. National innovation systems differ, and individual coefficients are hardly comparable without an innovation input-output context. We provided several recommendations for future research, such as the issue of non-linearity in some identified determinants.

The environmental benefits from the eco-innovation activities of enterprises have the nature of reduced material or water use per unit of output, less pollution and waste, better CO₂ ‘footprint’ in production and subsequent business processes. The socioeconomic impacts are associated with circular economy benefits like reduced energy use, decreased pollution and waste, and well-organized recycling possibilities of the product after use. The goal of this paper is to evaluate this innovative approach in the Czech economy. The hypotheses are aimed at the localization of enterprises, appropriability, and characteristics of enterprises that introduce eco-innovations to markets. The dataset is provided by the Czech Statistical Office and contains observations about the innovation activities of firms. Eco-innovation was surveyed in 2008 and 2014. This paper utilizes the estimation principles of CDM (Crépon, Duguet, and Mairesse) method at the firm level. The results suggest that rural–urban separation has no impact on the financial R&D intensity but urban enterprises have a higher probability to engage in innovation activities. The probability to introduce new-to-the-market innovations and eco-innovations is not dependent on localization. High-tech and knowledge-intensive industries have a lower probability to introduce eco-innovations to the market. The change in localization of enterprises to rural areas contributed to the higher sales form innovated goods and services. Higher appropriability was also observed in product eco-innovators. This paper offers a synthesis of factors that stimulate eco-innovation and shows that eco-innovation is a viable and sustainable innovative approach for rural and urban enterprises and identifies directions for future research.

Market competition drives organizations to higher efficiency. This paper analyses the relationship between the prevailing organization’s market orientation and marketing innovation activities. The sample of organizations consists of business enterprises from the manufacturing sector in the Czech economy. Data come from the Community Innovation Survey in 2014 and are analyzed using the innovation process econometric modeling. This innovation survey covers the period of a 3 year J-curve of real GDP growth. Czechia is one of the most open economies in the world and has one of the largest shares of exports and imports to GDP. This paper evaluates four types of marketing innovation activities (design, pricing, placing and promotion methods) at the enterprise level as a factor of marketing capability. The analyzed sample consists of observations about new-to-the-market innovators and enterprises that did not engage in new-to-the-market innovation activities in the last three years. The second group are considered to be lower-level innovators, i.e., adaptors to technological change. This paper explores the relationship between local, national, European and World market orientation in addition to an enterprise’s marketing innovation activities. The results suggest that not all types of marketing innovations are dependent on market orientation, while some have indirect positive and negative effects. Feedback and the future effects of marketing innovation activities are present at the enterprise level. Results also suggest that the marketing innovations of innovators form the manufacturing sector while they are dependent upon the strategies of enterprises to enter new geographical markets and gain the motivation to unlock new (hidden) demand.

This article develops a new business environment index with indicators that are appropriate, broadly available for developing regions, and, most importantly, are not double-edged. We used the index to analyze the business environment in Latin America, and it suggests the main role of basic economic principles, institutional economics approach and historical context. We propose the identification of an interdisciplinary variable as well as interpretation of the index, based on 10 factors divided into three dimensions (economic, institutional, and social). The novelty is in the consideration of past values; it is neither based on popularity votes, and nor does it favor large economies.