International Business School and Business in Support of Global Value Chains

The unsuitable indicators used to assess the innovation potential of enterprises are applied at both national and European levels. This adversely affects Bulgaria, leading to inaccurate data and an unrealistic representation of our country in the European Innovation Scoreboard.

The participants in the focus group for the project Development and implementation of a model for assessing the innovation potential of global value chains as a basis for increasing regional competitiveness,’ funded by the Fund for Scientific Research under contract No. KP-06-N55/8 dated November 16, 2021, reached this conclusion. The focus group took place on July 12, 2023, at IBS. It involved 12 representatives from business, the non-governmental sector, and academia, as well as Vita Juknevičienė, a project team member from Šiauliai Academy, Vilnius University, Lithuania.

Some of the questions discussed included: ‘What are the concerns of businesses participating in global value chains (GVCs)?’, ‘What good practices can we showcase?’, ‘Are there appropriate national policies to stimulate enterprise participation in such chains?’ and many others.

Among the main challenges outlined by the experts are the lack of trust among participants in the chain, weak marketing representation, intercultural differences, and the potential for creating a monopoly, negatively impacting the innovative development of small businesses in GVCs. The reluctance of enterprises to participate in surveys to gather information on the indicators further reduces the accuracy of the reported indicators.

Nevertheless, participants in the focus group expressed the opinion that relationships within companies in such chains are more of a partnership, providing greater freedom and opportunities for innovation and technology transfer. However, the Bulgarian market is characterized by local producers “limiting” themselves within our country because the local market is entirely sufficient for them. In GVCs, not only innovations are shared, but also knowledge is exchanged! It is important for companies to understand that large firms are not always competitors and that there is room for learning from them and developing their innovative potential along the chain!