Original research article
Przegląd Europejski – European Studies Quarterly

Contemporary institutional challenges in national innovation policy governance in Poland and Sweden in the context of the European Union’s competitiveness

2026, No. 3

Jacek Sroka

0000-0002-4432-3720

University of the National Education Commission, Krakow (Cracow, Poland)

DOI

10.31338/1641-2478pe.3.26.6

Publication date

24.09.2026

Submission date

20.07.2026

Acceptance date

06.08.2026

Publishing model

open access

License type

CC BY 4.0 Int.

Field

Social sciences

Discipline

political and administrative sciences, international relations, sociology, law, economics and finance, management and quality studies, social communication and media studies

Language of publication

English

Number of views:38

Number of downloads:0

Crossref citations:0

Altmetric score:0

Abstract

This article presents a theory-informed benchmark comparison of national innovation policy governance in Poland and Sweden, and it also examines how governance capacity is associated with EU competitiveness. The study combines conceptual analysis, official institutional documents and data from European Innovation Scoreboard 2026. The comparison is focused on five governance dimensions: political anchoring, stakeholder architecture, links between strategy and instruments, demand-side capacity, transparency and institutional learning. Sweden is chosen for the analysis as a historical functional benchmark, while Poland is assessed in the institutional form introduced on 4 November 2025 by Prime Minister’s Order no. 62 amending the order establishing the Council for Innovation. The evidence indicates that the innovation gap is associated not only with expenditure, but also with coordination, participation, transparency and implementation capacity.

Keywords:

holistic innovation policy,innovation policy governance,institutional innovation,Poland,Sweden,EU competitiveness,European Innovation Scoreboard

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