R&D expenditures are one of the key indicators of the success in innovation process. Successful
transformation of R&D expenditures into some form of technological innovation creates a stable basis for
sustainable profitability and competitive advantages of the company, which have a positive impact on the
growth of the entire economy. Due to the role of R&D expenditures in achieving success at the country and
firm level, the subject of research in this paper is a comparative analysis of R&D expenditures between
Serbia and selected countries. The aim is to examine the situation in Serbian R&D area in the context of
R&D expenditures, in comparison with, first of all, the countries from the environments of the Serbia, which
are the EU members. The survey coveres the period 2008 – 2016. Results show that Serbia has a
significantly higher GERD (%GDP) than all countries, except Slovenia and Hungary, while Croatia has
insignificantly higher GERD then Serbia. All countries from the Serbian environment that are members of
the EU have significantly higher BERD (%GDP) than Serbia, except Romania, which has insignificantly
higher BERD than Serbia
