Abstract:

Slovak economy has recently seen worsening of the position in the competitiveness charts. One of the tools affecting the country's competitiveness is a range and quality of innovation. Low level of innovation activity is affected by the lack of funding sources. Venture capital can be used as a funding source of innovation. This contribution is focused on the assessment of venture capital use by the small and medium enterprises, identification of the relationship between competitiveness, innovation and size of the venture capital. The aim of the contribution is to evaluate the position of the Slovak economy within the selected EU countries and countries of the Central and Eastern Europe in the term of achieved competitiveness expressed by the index of global competitiveness, innovation performance measured by the innovation index and venture capital utilization rate measured as a share of venture capital to GDP. The contribution use informations from The Global Competitiveness Report, WEF, IMD and national statistical institutes. Venture capital is in the Slovak economy used as a source of financing innovations relatively low. By its nature the venture capital represents a strength that helps economic development based on innovation and knowledge. The contribution identifies the sources of venture capital low utilization as on the demand side, also on the offer side and indicates the possibilities of its wider use.