The paper analyzes various types of international socio-economic relations of Polish voivodeships. They were assessed in terms of: a) the current impact on the territorial brand of Polish regions; b) unused potential in this respect. The study covered the following types of relations: a) migration (territorial brand as a derivative of outmigration from a given area); b) trade relationships (economic relations as the basis for brand promotion); c) tourist relations (territorial brand as a derivative of tourist visits in a given area); d) transport relations as an element defining the region (as poorly or easily accessible in terms of international transport). In summary, the tables presents the impact of individual types of connections on the territorial brand and recommendations resulting from these connections. An initial typology of Polish regions was made in terms of their international position measured by selected indicators and in terms of the objectives of the promotional policy.
There are numerous diff erences between EU Member States, e.g. related to geographic location, language, culture, etc. The main difference can be primarily found in the level of development of individual regions and voivodeships in Europe. Poor regions and voivodeships in the conditions of growing competition lose their distance to the wealthy ones. The European Union, having this in mind, has given a priority in its regional policy to reduce the disparities between regions by providing aid through the socio-economic cohesion policy to neglected provinces. This problem is of a particular importance in the Polish context due to the large diff erences between the voivodeships. Large disproportions are visible especially between voivodeships of Eastern Poland whose potential, especially innovative potential, is among the weakest in Poland and in the EU. The aim of the article is to review the concepts of innovation, to present the innovative potential of particular Polish voivodeships in 2020 and to defi ne innovative potential’s signifi cance in the development. For the calculation of the synthetic index, there was used a non-model method.
The concept of endogenous development assumes the use of specifi c resources of the region, difficult to copy, to its development, and even to gain a competitive advantage in a wider dimension. This concept has been used in the provisions of the Regional Innovation Strategy of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship for 2014-2020 for smart specialization (RIS3), especially in relation to leading smart specialization the quality of life, in the areas of: production and processing of ecological, regional and traditional food; renewable energy and distributed energy; agrotourism and ecotourism. It was targeted at the development of the entire region, not only the leading urban centers. The special role of the food economy lies in the need to guarantee food security and food sovereignty in the region. This issue is of strategic importance.