Differences in efficiency of innovation performance among EU candidate countries and EU 28 countries

The aim of this paper is to identify if there are differences in the efficiency of innovation performance between the two groups of countries: EU candidate countries such as Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey and the average level of innovation performance in EU-28 countries from 2010 - 2017. The further paper’s analysis aims to identify the most crucial factors and indicator that contribute to the efficiency of innovation performance in both groups of countries.In that sense, the comparative analyses of the two observed groups of countries has been done, using   the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) data as well as 12 EIS indicators for the period 2010 - 2017. For benchmarking of the countries three indicators are created: sub-index Input Innovation (II), sub-index Output Innovation (OI) and the Innovation Efficiency Performance Index (IEPI).The findings show that there is a difference in efficiency of innovation performance indicators between the observed two groups of countries, but as well as among each the EU candidate country. In fact, Macedonia (IEPI=2.33) has twice higher efficiency of transforming innovation inputs into innovation output unlike the EU28 countries (IEPI=1.17), Serbia (IEPI=1.06) and Turkey (IEPI=.24).It can be noted as well that Macedonia managed to use its limited resources to input (sub-index II= 0.13) in much more efficient/productive way (IEPI= 2.33) and to obtain most output innovation (sub-index OI= 0.29). This paper’s findings can be used for designing better innovation policy in the observed EU candidate countries.