Disruptive innovation concept in selected EU countries

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the concept of disruptive innovation and the factors that influence the adoption of disruptive innovations in selected countries. Over the past decade, disruptive innovations have become a significant driver of innovation that supports a country’s innovation performance. The ever-increasing impact of disruptive innovations and disruptive technologies on societal development has attracted the attention of both scholars and practitioners. This paper addresses some of the issues related to this new innovation paradigm. It also examines potential differences or similarities in the adoption of disruptiveinnovations across countries. The findings are based on qualitative content analysis and quantitative research based on a questionnaire survey conducted in selected countries. The paper indicates the growing interest in implementing disruptive innovations. Disruptive innovations are mostly created through collaboration with partners operating in the innovation ecosystem. In addition, networking is another significant driver of disruptive innovations that facilitates and accelerates the emergence of disruptive innovations. Based on the research results, it can be recommended to focus more on networking activities, as a relatively low increase in these activities was indicated in the studied sample. At the same time, the research did not demonstrate a significant increase in the innovation performance of companies measured by the ROI indicator. In addition, the results showed that there was no significant difference in the approach to disruptive innovations between highly innovative Western countries and former Eastern European countries.