Spatial modeling of investment activity of enterprises in service sector

Purpose: Due to the visible disproportions, the problem of innovation is increasingly often perceived regionally. These inequalities result from the concentration of knowledge, resources and the amount of expenditure on innovation in a few regions. The aim of the paper is to study the spatial dependence between Polish voivodships in terms of expenditure on innovative activities in enterprises in the service sector. Design/methodology/approach: For the selected variable conditioning the innovative activity of the enterprise, a classical econometric model will be built and the necessity to include the spatial factor in the modeling process will be verified. For this purpose, two spatial models will be considered: the spatial error model and spatial lag model. Findings: During the study, the hypothesis on the legitimacy of introducing spatial relationships to the econometric model describing the shaping of the amount of expenditure on innovative activities in enterprises in the service sector in Polish voivodeships was verified. The hypothesis has been verified positively – there are spatial relationships between the examined objects. Research limitations/implications: The need to take into account the spatial factor in the econometric model results in taking into account spatial estimation methods. The research used selected spatial models. Due to the limitations resulting from the availability of source data, the analysis was conducted only for voivodships in selected years. The analysis should be further deepened, e.g., by even more precise identification of the models and taking into account other neighborhood matrices - only the first-order neighborhood matrix was included in the study. Practical implications: Modeling the phenomenon of innovation. Social implications: An essential condition influencing the innovative activity of enterprises is their environment. It is the regional factors that largely influence innovation and faster development of enterprises. Originality/value: Introducing spatial relationships to the econometric model of outlays on innovative activities of enterprises in the service sector.