Sustainable development and innovations- how they work together?

Abstract

Purpose: The main purpose of the paper is the elaboration and verification of a comprehensive proposal for measuring the results achieved by selected global economies in the area of sustainable development and innovation. Approach/Methodology/Design: To compare the results obtained by EU countries the multi-criteria taxonomy methods were used. The basis of empirical research are the indicators used by the European Commission to monitor the progress in the implementation of the Strategy for Sustainable Development – Agenda 2030 and the indicators used to assess the level of innovation published in European Innovation Scoreboard. Findings: The results of the research can be divided into two parts. In the first one the rankings of EU countries were built separately for each analyzed dimension of sustainable development and the area describing the level of innovation. In the second one the values of taxonomic measures of development were used to divide EU countries into groups characterized by similarity within all considered areas of sustainability. As a result, typological groups were obtained that differed both in number and composition. Practical Implications: The presented results are important for individual countries as well as for organisations as EU, in which internal cohesion is one of the strategic development goals. The results can also used to assess the effects of implementing the assumptions of the "Green Deal" strategy, currently being developed in the EU. Originality/Value: The added value of the paper is the research findings focused on the assessment of development of EU countries in two most important areas of functioning. In the literature, these areas are usually considered separately. In the paper, the authors decided to compare the results in these two areas analysed together and treat them as one of the important development directions of EU countries.