The impact of firm-level innovativeness on socioeconomic indicators: an AI-driven approach
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3846/jbem.2026.25753Abstract
This study examined the impact of firm-level innovativeness on socioeconomic indicators at regional and sectoral levels, using Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to analyze unstructured data from the websites of 32,559 companies. Using this data, an Innovation Index was constructed. The results indicated a generally low-to-moderate level of innovativeness among Lithuanian firms, with an average Innovation Index of 35 out of 100. Notably, 38.6% of firms scored 0, showing no detectable signs of innovation. Innovativeness was found to be highest in Vilnius and Kaunas, and in sectors such as electricity, information and communication, and public administration. An econometric analysis revealed that a 1-point increase in the Innovation Index was associated with a 0.02% rise in gross average earnings, a 0.27% increase in gross value added, a 0.17% increase in FDI per capita, and a 0.05% increase in GDP per capita. Higher innovativeness levels were also linked to lower unemployment and migration rates. The findings underscore the importance of innovation for regional development and labor market outcomes, and that an AI-driven approach can offer a reliable and scalable alternative to traditional methods, providing more timely and objective assessments. The approach is adaptable across countries, thus offering valuable insights for policymakers and researchers.
Keywords:
innovation, firm innovativeness, socioeconomic indicators, artificial intelligence, sectors, regionsHow to Cite
Share
License
Copyright (c) 2026 The Author(s). Published by Vilnius Gediminas Technical University.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Aldieri, L., & Vinci, C. P. (2018). Innovation effect on employment in high-tech and low-tech industries: Evidence from large international firms within the triad. Eurasian Business Review, 8, 229–243. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40821-017-0081-9
Ascani, A., Balland, P.-A., & Morrison, A. (2020). Heterogeneous foreign direct investment and local innovation in Italian provinces. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 53, 388–401. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.strueco.2019.06.004
Axenbeck, J., & Breithaupt, P. (2019). Web-based innovation indicators: Which firm website characteristics relate to firm-level innovation activity? (ZEW Discussion Paper No. 19-063). SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3542199
Barbieri, L., Piva, M., & Vivarelli, M. (2019). R&D, embodied technological change, and employment: Evidence from Italian microdata. Industrial and Corporate Change, 28(1), 203–218. https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dty001
Baudry, M., Leduc, S., & Lefebvre, V. (2016). Assessing innovation through website analysis: A study of Canadian firms. Technology Innovation Management Review, 6(8), 15–28.
Blichfeldt, H., & Faullant, R. (2021). Performance effects of digital technology adoption and product & service innovation: A process-industry perspective. Technovation, 105, Article 102275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2021.102275
Bottai, C., Crosato, L., Domenech, J., Guerzoni, M., & Liberati, C. (2022). Unconventional data for policy: Using big data for detecting Italian innovative SMEs. Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on Information Technology for Social Good, 338–344. https://doi.org/10.1145/3524458.3547246
Braaksma, B., Daas, P., Raaijmakers, S., Geurts, A., & Meyer-Vitali, A. (2021). AI-supported innovation monitoring. In F. Heintz, M. Milano, & B. O’Sullivan (Eds.), Lecture notes in computer science: Vol. 12641. Trustworthy AI – integrating learning, optimization and reasoning. TAILOR 2020 (pp. 220–226). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73959-1_20
Cainelli, G., Evangelista, R., & Savona, M. (2004). The impact of innovation on economic performance in services. The Service Industries Journal, 24(1), 116–130. https://doi.org/10.1080/02642060412331301162
Capello, R., & Lenzi, C. (2016). Knowledge externalities and regional growth: The role of innovation and urbanization. Journal of Regional Science, 56(5), 759–786.
Canh, N. T., Liem, N. T., Thu, P. A., & Khuong, N. V. (2019). The impact of innovation on the firm performance and corporate social responsibility of Vietnamese manufacturing firms. Sustainability, 11(13), Article 3666. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11133666
Castellacci, F., & Natera, J. M. (2016). Innovation, absorptive capacity and growth heterogeneity: Development paths in Latin America 1970–2010. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 37, 27–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.strueco.2015.11.002
Cozzens, S., Gatchair, S., Kang, J., Kim, K. S., Lee, H. J., Ordóñez, G., & Porter, A. (2010). Emerging technologies: Quantitative identification and measurement. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 22(3), 361–376. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537321003647396
Dempere, J., Qamar, M., Allam, H., & Malik, S. (2023). The impact of innovation on economic growth, foreign direct investment, and self-employment: A global perspective. Economies, 11(7), Article 182. https://doi.org/10.3390/economies11070182
Doran, J., & Jordan, D. (2012). The impact of the scale and scope of internationalisation on the productivity of Irish firms. Regional Studies, 47(4), 554–571.
Glaeser, E. L., Ponzetto, G. A., & Ziv, O. (2016). Urban structure and economic growth. Journal of Economic Geography, 16(6), 1251–1288.
Gökk, S., Fay, D., Klinger, J., & Watenphul, S. (2015). Exploring the potential of website-derived data for research and development analysis. Journal of Business Research, 68(12), 2610–2620.
Golejewska, A. (2018). The impact of innovation on employment in Polish regions. Bulletin of Geography. Socio-Economic Series, 42, 25–39.
Gupta, A. (2024). Impact of innovation on employment: A review of literature (MPRA Paper No. 120383). Munich Personal RePEc Archive.
Hatzikian, Y. (2015). Exploring the link between innovation and firm performance. Journal of the Knowledge Economy, 6, 749–768. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-012-0143-2
Khalatur, S., Stachowiak, Z., Zhylenko, K., Honcharenko, O., & Khalatur, O. (2019). Financial instruments and innovations in business environment: European countries and Ukraine. Investment Management & Financial Innovations, 16(3), 275–291. https://doi.org/10.21511/imfi.16(3).2019.25
Khan, P. A., Johl, S. K., & Akhtar, S. (2022). Vinculum of sustainable development goal practices and firms’ financial performance: A moderation role of green innovation. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 15(3), Article 96. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm15030096
Kinne, J., & Axenbeck, J. (2018). Web mining for innovation ecosystem mapping: A framework and a large-scale pilot study. Scientometrics, 124(2), 1147–1175.
Kinne, J., & Lenz, D. (2021). Predicting innovative firms using web mining and deep learning. PLoS ONE, 16(4), Article e0249071. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249071
Krüger, M., Kinne, J., Lenz, D., & Resch, B. (2020). The digital layer: How innovative firms relate on the web (ZEW Discussion Paper No. 20-003).
Lacka, I., & Brzezicki, L. (2021). The efficiency and productivity evaluation of national innovation systems in Europe. European Research Studies Journal, 24(S2), 471–496. https://doi.org/10.35808/ersj/2440
Lee, N., & Rodríguez-Pose, A. (2013). Innovation and spatial inequality in Europe and the USA. Journal of Economic Geography, 13(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbs022
Mazzucato, M. (2015). The green entrepreneurial state. In I. Scoones, M. Leach, P. Newell (Eds.), The politics of green transformations (pp. 134–152). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315747378-9
Mirończuk, M., & Protasiewicz, J. (2016). Using Bayesian models to detect innovation through web content analysis: Evidence from Poland. Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience, 1–10.
Nasir, M. H., & Zhang, S. (2024). Evaluating innovative factors of the global innovation index: A panel data approach. Innovation and Green Development, 3(1), Article 100096. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.igd.2023.100096
Nedelkoska, L., & Quintini, G. (2018). Automation, skills use and training (Working Paper No. 202). OECD.. https://doi.org/10.1787/2e2f4eea-en
Pardo Martínez, C. I., & Cotte Poveda, A. (2021). The importance of science, technology, and innovation in the green growth and sustainable development goals of Colombia. Environmental and Climate Technologies, 25(1), 29–41. https://doi.org/10.2478/rtuect-2021-0003
Pavitt, K. (1984). Sectoral patterns of technical change: Towards a taxonomy and a theory. Research Policy, 13(6), 343–373. https://doi.org/10.1016/0048-7333(84)90018-0
Peters, M. A. (2020). Beyond technological unemployment: The future of work. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 52(5), 485–491. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2019.1608625
Popescu, I. A., Reis Mourao, P., & Bilan, Y. (2023). Innovation, coopetition and spillover effects in European regions. Journal of Business Economics and Management, 24(5), 818–840. https://doi.org/10.3846/jbem.2023.19890
Rammer, C., & Es-Sadki, N. (2022). Using big data for generating firm-level innovation indicators – A literature review (ZEW Discussion Paper No. 22-007). SSRN. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4072590
Rietsch, C., Beaudry, C., & Héroux-Vaillancourt, M. (2016). Validation of a web mining technique to measure innovation in the Canadian nanotechnology-related community. In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics, CARMA 2016 (pp. 100–115). Universitat Politècnica de València, València. https://doi.org/10.4995/CARMA2016.2016.3140
Rodríguez-Pose, A., & Wilkie, C. (2019). Innovating in less developed regions: What drives patenting in the lagging European regions? Regional Studies, 53(5), 607–618.
Rubera, G., & Kirca, A. H. (2012). Firm innovativeness and its performance outcomes: A meta-analytic review and theoretical integration. Journal of Marketing, 76(3), 130–147. https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.10.0494
Schiersch, A., & Winker, P. (2017). Product and process innovation as a response to increasing import competition: Evidence from German firms. Journal of Business Economics, 87(6), 671–703.
Vasin, S. M., & Timokhina, D. M. (2024). Specific effect of innovation factors on socioeconomic development of countries in view of the global crisis. Economies, 12(8), Article 190. https://doi.org/10.3390/economies12080190
Xu, E., & Fan, F. (2024). The impact of innovation on intra-city economic disparity: A technological complexity perspective. Applied Economics, 57(52), 8769–8784. https://doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2024.2403781
Yang, J., Zhou, L., Qu, Y., Jin, X., & Fang, S. (2023). Mechanism of innovation and standardization driving company competitiveness in the digital economy. Journal of Business Economics and Management, 24(1), 54–73. https://doi.org/10.3846/jbem.2023.17192
Yang, Z., Ali, S. T., Ali, F., Sarvar, Z., & Khan, M. A. (2020). Outward foreign direct investment and corporate green innovation: An institutional pressure perspective. South African Journal of Business Management, 51(1), Article a1883. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajbm.v51i1.1883
Zhang, R., Sun, K., Delgado, M. S., & Kumbhakar, S. (2012). Productivity in China’s high technology industry: Regional heterogeneity and R&D. Technological Forecasting & Social Change, 79(1), 127–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2011.08.005
View article in other formats
CrossMark check
Published
Issue
Section
Copyright
Copyright (c) 2026 The Author(s). Published by Vilnius Gediminas Technical University.
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.