Composite index assessing the contribution of innovation infrastructure to regional economic security: essence and calculation methodology

Abstract

The paper puts forward an indicative composite index measuring the contribution of innovation infrastructure to a region’s economic security (the IIESR index) and provides its methodological grounding. It does not assess particular regions: what it delivers is a reproducible calculation algorithm. The need for such a tool stems from the fact that the appraisal of innovation-infrastructure institutions and the indicator apparatus of regional economic security have so far evolved separately. The core of the proposed solution is a two-contour system of reference points. Where a substantive safety threshold exists – budgetary payback or a ceiling on the unit cost of a job – the comparison is made against that threshold; where no such norm exists (shares in GRP and employment, productivity, resident diversity), the indicator is set against an external development benchmark drawn from nationally representative data. Both reference types are fixed in advance and are not recomputed when the sample changes, which keeps the assessment indicative in meaning and comparable across years. The index is built along the stages of the OECD/JRC handbook. Block weights are fixed: equal weights as the baseline and analytic-hierarchy-process weights, with a consistency check, as an expert alternative; sample-dependent weighting is rejected. The algorithm’s stability is examined on a conditional example through a simultaneous uncertainty analysis (Monte Carlo) and a variance-based sensitivity analysis of the zones with respect to normalization, weights, and the aggregation method. Validation on a real sample of regions is identified as the next step.