INNOVATION AND INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS OF A COUNTRY
The success of economies or firms has been explained in the recent decades by the degree of innovation they have. Companies innovate to conquer markets through new products and services, to reduce production costs, to have an effective management system. It has been statistically demonstrated that there is a direct link between performances, profit level and degree of innovation. The ranking of countries by their degree of innovation prompted the reassessment of how innovation is quantified. The pillars that measure the degree of innovation do no longer refer strictly to research and development costs or number of patents and inventions. There are institutions, human and research capital, infrastructure, market environment, business environment, knowledge and technology outputs as well as creative outputs when we speak about the assessment of the degree of innovation of companies countries. More and more indicators measuring innovation are focused on items that are not necessarily related to the number of patents or inventions obtained. The developed countries of the world have understood that their success on the international market is related to the degree of novelty and innovation their economy has. Due to globalization, companies and emerging countries are under pressure to engage continuously in innovation: R D, software, design, engineering, human resources, marketing, etc. all play an increasingly important role in what we call international competitiveness. We can also state that innovation has evolved along with the development of the human society, from a simple concept of invention or technological novelty to a very complex concept that takes all forms and sectors of economy. Innovation has become a fundamental factor in the whole value chain. Social changes, both in the developed and in the emerging countries, have recognized lately the importance of innovation, and therefore tried to introduce development policies that bring the education and R&D system closer to market requirements.