Regional economic systems: competitiveness and innovative development

Abstract

The evolutionary theories and the focus on innovation in endogenous growth theory have made the innovative process central to any economic growth investigation. This paper is aimed to evaluate the regional disparities of socio-economic development in different Lithuanian counties, taking into account the impact of innovation level. The concept of competitiveness in this paper is similar to the concept of sustainable development. The regional disparities as intra–country analysis were evaluated by calculating the indexes. The regional competitiveness was defined as the ability to maintain a competitive position among other similar regions according to the differences in economic, social and environmental condi-tions.