THE INNOVATION STRATEGY AND THE COMPETITIVE POSITIONS OF BULGARIAN ECONOMY

Abstract

As an EU member state, it has become an imperative for Bulgaria to fit in the economic structure of the European Union. In order to promote economic growth, the Union assigned member-states with the task to identify the advantages which will enable them to specialize in the production of goods and services with high added value. Specialization will thus enable member states to focus their effort on consolidating their comparative advantages by employing as an instrument the innovation paradigm. To respond to this challenge, Bulgaria designed its ‘Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialization’ in 2014. The aim of this research is to identify the extent to which the Strategy reflects the real opportunities for the national economy to increase the value added of its production by introducing innovations in specific technological areas stated in the document. The findings of the research indicate that the Innovation Strategy is not in compliance with the underlying logic of the European Commission or the OECD in terms of identifying the economic activities that have real potential as comparative advantages and core competences and where the fastest and most sustainable growth of value added could be expected through the adoption of innovations.