Innovativeness of the Services Sector of the European Union Countries - A Comparative Analysis Using Taxonomic Methods

The aim of the presented document is a multidimensional evaluation of level of services sector innovativeness in the European Union (EU-28). Due to the fact that innovativeness of the services sector is a complex category, the assessment was carried out on the basis of linear ordering methods, which fall within the scope of multidimensional comparative analysis and broader taxonomy. Synthetic measures were constructed on the basis of proposed partial indicators (potential explanatory variables), using the data of the European Commission, collected using the methodology of "The European Service Innovation Scoreboard". In the empirical part of the work that four methods were used: Hellwig's development pattern method, the TOPSIS method, the standardized sum method and the rank method. In addition, the analyzed objects (EU countries) were classified using the so-called threshold method for four typological classes by level of innovativeness in the services sector. As a result of the elaboration, four groups of countries with a differentiated level of service innovativeness were distinguished. The analyses carried out indicate that the level of services innovativeness is very diversified. In many countries, measures have to be taken to create favourable conditions for innovativeness in services sector. The originality of the study is expressed in the application of taxonomic methods in the assessment of countries' innovativeness in relation to the service sector, which should be considered as the authors' contribution to the development of research on the presented topics.