REGIONAL INNOVATION DISPARITIES IN ROMANIA: THE ROLE OF R&D, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY
REGIONAL INNOVATION DISPARITIES IN ROMANIA: THE ROLE OF R&D, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY
Ioana MEȘTER, Darie GAVRILUȚ
1 Department of Economics and Business, Doctoral School of Economics, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Oradea, Oradea, Romania
2 Department of Economics and Business, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Oradea, Oradea, Romania
imester@uoradea.ro
gavrilut.darie@uoradea.ro
Abstract: Innovation is regarded far and wide as being one of the major forces that determine economic growth across multiple time horizons. The previous statement is applicable at national or country wide levels, yet within country, in the case of this paper, within Romania, distribution can rarely be considered as consistent or evenly spread throughout its regions. After more than two decades since accession into the European Union (and just prior to a conclusion concerning OECD accession approval), policy makers and researchers have yet to offer a pertinent explanation for the puzzle concerning why gaps between the Bucharest-Ilfov region and the remainder of the seven other Romanian regions persists in the manner that it does. Thus, evaluating why innovative performance is more energetic and potent in certain regions than in others, and at what levels such gaps could be closed, are necessary, both for academic and practical scopes. Given this, this paper attempted to answer the following questions: what factors truly explain or determine the constant performance variations across the eight Romanian regions and by how big of a margin can R&D and economic development of specific regions explain this variation? Substantiated by concrete evidence from EUROSTAT datasets on Gross Domestic Expenditure on regional R&D sector and regional Gross Domestic Product at NUTS 2 level, and the 2025 Regional Innobarometer report, the present research proposes a multifaceted characterization of regional innovation achievements. Apart from this, the present research seeks to evaluate and analyze the uneven level of innovation performance across NUTS 2 Romanian regions and provide explanations as to why such gaps have persisted over time. At the same time, this paper is aimed at researching and investigating the factors that determine levels of regional innovation throughout Romania, with the broader part of the research focusing on the roles of economic development and research and development (R&D). A focal point of the present study refers to the evaluation of the literature on regional innovation systems/frameworks and regional disparities currently occurring throughout Romania. As such, the theoretical foundation of the paper builds on empirical literature centered around national and regional innovation systems, the capacity of regions to adopt, adapt and absorb innovative output, the intensity of knowledge regional spillovers.
Keywords: regional innovation; research and development; regional GDP; innovative performance.
JEL Classification: O18; O30; R11; R58.
