Development and innovation potential in the Slovene manufacturing industry: analysis of an industrial innovation survey

In the transformation of economic structures and industrial sectors in Central and Eastern European Countries, innovation plays a critical role for adapting production processes and products to global market requirements, for improving economic competitiveness and for social welfare. Since innovation processes were organised according to a linear science-push innovation model during socialist times, interactive learning processes, which are an important feature in recent innovative activity, were underdeveloped or non-existent. Using empirical data from an industrial innovation survey carried out in the Republic of Slovenia, the paper analyses structural characteristics of the Slovenian manufacturing industry and its innovative behaviour. It will be shown that although a high share of firms innovated between 1994 and 1996, interactive learning processes through innovation networking are still not fully utilised. Co-operation takes place firstly on the level of informal information exchange and less on the formal level of joint research and development.