Abstract

The article aims to put forward a method for measuring the innovation potential of cities as one of main drivers – alongside education and culture – of their development potential (Orankiewicz &Turała, 2019). The discussion which is carried out in the paper starts with the concept of territorial capital put forward by Camagni and Capello [2013] and refers to other approaches to measuring the innovation potential of cities (Marszał 2012; Siłka 2018).

The main assumptions behind the method of measurement are briefly described in the second part of the article – the proposed measurement of innovation potential reflects four factors: (1) the capacity to generate knowledge and innovative solutions; (2) the capacity to disseminate research results; (3) the capacity to bridge the gap between academia and economic activity or, in other words, the capacity to commercialise research outcomes and (4) the robustness of economic activity in the most innovative sectors.

Data on the above factors of innovation potential was collected for all urban communes in Poland (306 cities) for the period between 2013 and 2016. A set of rankings of Polish cities based on their innovation potential between 2013 and 2016 is then presented – the third part of the article discusses the differentiation of innovation potentials of cities by region as well as in different classes in terms of city size. The final part of the article concentrates on the significance of various drivers of the innovation potential of cities.