A typology of the Baltic region states according to excellence in science and technology

Abstract

Global manufacturing systems function in such a way that countries develop industrial spe­cialisation, which leads to territorial disparities. The countries of the Baltic region are no exception despite their strong economic ties and developed industries. A signifi­cant element of any manufacturing system is its scientific and technological subsystem, which is described in this article for ten countries (Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Nor­way, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia), based on an analysis of a clustered set of national character­istics: R&D financing and staffing in the scientific and technological subsystem. A total of ten indicators, absolute and relative, are investigated. The study relies on combined grouping, graphical and cluster analysis to build a typology of countries and distinguish their types ac­cording to their scientific and technological excellence As a result, a typology of the countries of the Baltic Sea region has been pro­posed and types of countries with similar characteristics have been identified: the two main types are traditional market economies and post-socialist countries, whose common features are observed in all sets of main characteristics. Several subtypes are described as well. The research draws on 2010-2019 (2020) statistical data from the European Statistical Office (Eurostat), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Russia's Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat).