Abstract The objective of this article is to outline various drawbacks of the studies on technical efficiency of pro-innovation activities at a national level. A better awareness of existing constraints may assist the readers and reviewers of the relative reports in a more critical assessment of the presented results and help in planning the research. This article outlines several methodological problems faced with conducting research on the technical efficiency of innovations. On the basis of the review of the subject-related literature, as well as press releases, numerous restraints prevailing in the currently used research approaches are presented. Some of these precincts are evidenced in the used methods: other may be rooted in the non-scientifically related intentions of the authors. Frequently, observations may drive the audience to the incorrect conclusions and opinions. The awareness of the consequences of these limitations may serve as a warning about the reliability of the results, their applicability for crafting policies, and country-to-country comparisons. However, various limitations originate from the very nature of the theme. Several propositions are specified about items to be kept in mind in order to minimize the negative impact caused by existing drawbacks. These may serve as a guide to formulate research questions and hypotheses for verification in further studies. While each of the propositions stated independently may be labeled obvious, their simultaneous review many contribute to the streamlining further research and in the improvement of the quality of suggestions arrived at. The conclusions from the article may also pinpoint to these methodological issues that cause some of the publications on the subject to be of questionable value.

中文翻译：

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关于国家创新技术效率讨论的思考

摘要本文的目的是概述在国家层面开展的关于创新活动技术效率的研究的各种弊端。对现有限制的更好认识可以帮助相关报告的读者和审阅者对提出的结果进行更严格的评估，并有助于计划研究。本文概述了进行创新技术效率研究所面临的一些方法论问题。在回顾与主题相关的文献以及新闻稿的基础上，提出了当前使用的研究方法中普遍存在的诸多限制。这些领域中的一些在使用的方法中得到了证明：其他可能源自作者与科学无关的意图。经常，观察可能会导致观众得出错误的结论和观点。对这些限制的后果的了解可能会警告有关结果的可靠性，其在制定政策时的适用性以及国家与国家之间的比较。但是，各种限制源于主题的本质。对于要记住的事项，提出了一些建议，以最大程度地减少由现有缺陷引起的负面影响。这些可以作为制定研究问题和假设以供进一步研究验证的指南。尽管每个独立陈述的主张可能都被标记为显而易见，但同时进行的审查却有助于简化进一步的研究并提高所提出建议的质量。