1. INNOVATION BENCHMARKING Assoc. prof. STEFAN HRISTOV, PhD University of National and World Economy Department “National and Regional Security”

2. INTRODUCTION Innovation benchmarking is used for comparative analysis in the innovation area. It serves for investigation of good world practices and improvement of the national systems for scientific research, incl. Bulgarian defence industry needs.

3. INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS RDI - R&D cost index RDI - R&D cost index INI - innovativeness index INI - innovativeness index BSI - business sophistication index BSI - business sophistication index TRI - technological readiness index TRI - technological readiness index HTI - higher education and training index HTI - higher education and training index ISI - information society index ISI - information society index GCI - global competitiveness index GCI - global competitiveness index SDI - sustainable development index SDI - sustainable development index

4. INNOVATION LEADERS Ind.Innovation Leader in ЕU Innovation Leader in CEE BG countryscorecountryscore RDIFinland5.90Estonia4.062.92 INIGermany5.89Czech Republic4.473.26 BSIGermany6.26Czech Republic4.963.59 TRISweden6.01Estonia5.293.21 HTIFinland6.23Estonia5.264.05 ISISweden5.93Estonia5.493.09 GCIFinland5.76Estonia5.123.96 SDIFinland6.23Slovenia5.003.00

5. INNOVATION DEVIATION Ind.ЕU27ЕU10BG average score deviation from EU27 deviation from EU10 RDI4.1473.6211.2270.701 INI4.5303.9211.2700.661 BSI4.9744.3451.3840.755 TRI4.6414.1551.4310.945 HTI4.9944.6280.9440.578 ISI4.5223.9151.4320.825 GCI4.8954.4950.9350.535 SDI4.9134.2941.9131.294

6. INNOVATION PROFILE

7. CONCEPTUAL MODEL Y = f (X) Y - values of the response variable; Х - values of the predictor variable; f - function; GCI, SDI, INI, TRI, BSI, HTI, ISI - response variables RDI - predictor variable

8. FACTOR MODELS GCI = 2.1557 + 0.6604 RDI Correlation Coefficient r = 0.939 Coefficient of Determination R 2 = 88.2% F C (187.20)  F T (7.77) SDI = 0.4082 + 1.0759 RDI Correlation Coefficient r = 0.902 Coefficient of Determination R 2 = 81.3% F C (108.97)  F T (7.77)

9. FACTOR MODELS INI = 0.6955 + 0.9247 RDI Correlation Coefficient r = 0.948 Coefficient of Determination R 2 = 89.9% F C (221.80)  F T (7.77) TRI = 1.6211 + 0.7281 RDI Correlation Coefficient r = 0.778 Coefficient of Determination R 2 = 60.6% F C (38.44)  F T (7.77)

10. FACTOR MODELS BSI = 1.4411 + 0.7281 RDI Correlation Coefficient r = 0.893 Coefficient of Determination R 2 = 79.7% F C (97.94)  F T (7.77) HTI = 2.0787 + 0.7029 RDI Correlation Coefficient r = 0.885 Coefficient of Determination R 2 = 78.3% F C (90.13)  F T (7.77)

11. FACTOR MODELS ISI = 1.3668 + 0.7607 RDI Correlation Coefficient r = 0.690 Coefficient of Determination R 2 = 47.6% F C (22.70)  F T (7.77)

12. The defence industry transformation of Bulgaria requires conducting of various market-orientated, production, organizational, technological, product, marketing and other innovations. However, it requires considerable improvement of the innovation climate in our country, on one hand, and significant increase in budget and business expenditure for R&D as well. CONCLUSION