Challenges of the National Innovation System for the Application of Open Innovation Practices in the Republic of North Macedonia

Nowadays, products become increasingly complex, their development and production is a result of the application of a wide range of external ideas, technologies and knowledge. In the complex economy, it is impossible for any single enterprise to keep abreast of all modern technologies. In the production process enterprises include development of specialized knowledge assets, using a wide range of knowledge from different areas. At the same time, enterprises make their specialized knowledge assets available for usage by the other actors. Those activities are referred as open innovation practices. The great interest in applying the open innovation practices is a result of the positive impact that open innovation has on the enterprise performance and on the overall economic system as a central element in the modern knowledge-based societies. However, for successful implementation of the open innovation practices, which is essentially based on the cooperation between the key actors within the national innovation systems, government, academy and the business sector, there is a need for significant institutional support at a national level, a developed innovation system and a particularly developed system for technology and knowledge transfer. Hence, the paper primarily analyzes the institutional factors (national innovation system), with a view to the institutional and financial support in cooperation and knowledge transfer. At the same time, an analysis of the innovation of the Macedonian business sector is made, with particular emphasis on the application of open innovation practices in terms of the representation of the key model dimensions in the enterprises. On the basis of the analysis made, conclusions are presented and measures are proposed to improve the environment for applying the open innovation practices in the Macedonian business sector.