Approximating innovation potential with neurofuzzy robust model

In a remarkably short time, economic globalisation has changed the world's economic order, bringing new challenges and opportunities to SMEs. These processes pushed the need to measure innovation capability, which has become a crucial issue for today's economic and political decision makers. Companies cannot compete in this new environment unless they become more innovative and respond more effectively to consumers’ needs and preferences – as mentioned in the EU's innovation strategy. Decision makers cannot make accurate and efficient decisions without knowing the capability for innovation of companies in a sector or a region. This need is forcing economists to develop an integrated, unified and complete method of measuring, approximating and even forecasting the innovation performance not only on a macro but also a micro level. In this recent article a critical analysis of the literature on innovation potential approximation and prediction is given, showing their weaknesses and a possible alternative that eliminates the limitations and disadvantages of classical measuring and predictive methods.