INTERACTIVE IMPACT OF INNOVATION AND EDUCATION ON BUSINESS PERFORMANCE DURING THE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN

Sa？etak In times of quick changes and great business and economic uncertainty, innovativeness becomes a strategic priority of any business organization. The same opinion applies to the improvement of employees’ knowledge and skills through regular education activities. Such a strategic orientation is especially hailed during and after recession by both managers and academia. The purpose of this research is to investigate whether the companies from the F B&H that had pursued such a strategy have achieved a better business performance. For that purpose, beside the archival data from the Federal financial office, data were also collected from a questionnaire which was sent to 270 companies in the F B&H, yielding 120 valid responses. For the purpose of data analysis, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was employed. The research results show that only simultaneous investment in innovation and education has a significant effect on business performance, which is the most important research finding