Does firm’s higher innovation potential lead to its superior financial performance? Case of CEE countries

Abstract

Innovation is one of the most commonly used word in the business and academic world. Naturally the firms are willing to innovate to leverage on future profits and growth generated by the new products and supported by temporary monopolistic positions on the market. However, the question is about how much the companies should invest to record higher profitability. The authors tried to answer this question analyzing the companies within the Central and Eastern European region taking intangible assets as innovation proxy. It was concluded that the companies having higher investments in the intangible assets are able to generate higher margins. However, positive effect of possibly higher innovation potential is seen only if investments in intangibles are substantial, i.e. over 10%.

Keywords:

• innovations
• corporate financial performance
• profitability
• level of intangible assets

Jel classification:

• G31
• E22
• D24

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Julia Bistrova

Julija BISTROVA, Dr. oec., is an Assistant Professor at Riga Technical University. She also works for CE Services SIA, an outsourced research and financial analysis arm of Swiss asset management company CE Asset Management, as a FINANCIAL ANALYST, being a team leader in research department. Her research interests cover earnings plausibility, factors influencing stock performance in CEE markets, corporate governance, and shareholder theory.

Natalja Lace

Natalja LACE is a Professor at Riga Technical University (RTU). She graduated from RTU (former Riga Polytechnic Institute), Faculty of Engineering Economics in 1982 with the diploma of engineer-economist. The doctoral thesis (1990) was focused on alternative choice of engineering decision making. Her pedagogic activities encompass bachelor, master and doctoral programs: lecturing, supervising and reviewing bachelor, master and PhD theses. Natalja Lace is the Head of the Department of Corporate Finance and Economics and the Director of Master study program “Business Finance” at Riga Technical University Faculty of Engineering Economics and Management. She is a Member of the Editorial Board of several academic journals and an expert of the Latvian Council of Science. Professor Natalja Lace is an author, co-author and editor of more than 200 scientific papers and books. She is the scientific leader of research projects sponsored by the Latvian Government and Scientific Council of Republic of Latvia. Her research interests are focused on critical success factors of small and medium sized enterprises, innovation, financial literacy as well as financial aspects of business.

Rima Tamošiūnienė

Rima TAMOŠIŪNIENĖ is a Professor at the Financial Engineering Department of the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU), Lithuania. She also is a Professor at Economics Institute of Mykolas Romeris University. She graduated from VGTU (former Vilnius Civil Engineering Institute), Faculty of Civil Engineering Economics in 1982 with the diploma of engineer-economist. The doctoral thesis (1999) was focused on business project evaluation and management problems. Her pedagogic activities encompass bachelor, master and doctoral programs: lecturing such courses like Business projects management, Financial engineering, Fundamentals of financial decisions; supervising and reviewing bachelor, master and PhD theses. She is a Member of the Editorial Board of several scientific journals, Editor-in-Chief of scientific journal “Intellectual Economics” and an international expert of the Latvian Council of Science. Rima Tamošiūnienė is an author, co-author of more than 100 scientific papers and books. Her research interests are focused on business projects and project portfolio evaluation and management, risk management, socially responsible business evaluation, assessment of intellectual capital, investment management.

Konstatins Kozlovskis

Konstantins KOZLOVSKIS, Dr. oec., is an Assistant Professor at Riga Technical University. He studied at the Riga Technical University, where he became interested in financial markets and investment management. Since then, he has more than 10-year experience in trading different financial instruments, building and managing investment portfolios. The main field of research is related to financial market analysis, investment management, portfolio building and data analysis.