Innowacyjnoœść polskich przedsiębiorstw na tle Unii Europejskiej

One of the most crucial factors of development of a knowledge-based economy is the innovativeness of enterprises, which leads to the growth the competitiveness of firms and econo-mies. The main goal of the article is to examine the innovativeness of Polish enterprises againstthe backcloth of the European Union and relation of innovativeness and development of knowledge-based economy. According to a study carried out by Eurostat (CIS 4) in the years 2002–-2004, the chief source of innovation in Poland and the entire European Union is enterprises’ inhouse research. A much less significant role is played by higher schools and public R&D units.Polish enterprises are below the EU average, both in terms of the proportion of firms engaged ininnovative activity and the proportion of those which have applied for patents.