THE ENTREPRENEURIAL CAPACITY OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES IN SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE - AN ENTERPRISE PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The article is looking into whether the management ability but also the inspection of development policies on the part of local city authorities influences the competitiveness of firms. Origin of this survey has been various approaches of the last decades which point out the significance of entrepreneurial capacity and the ability of local authorities to manage policies on local level. The analysis uses data from 310 small-medium size firms of Southeastern Europe. Through exploratory factor and cluster analysis the article concludes that the ability of Local Authorities to implement development policies, to develop co-operations with the private sector and to manage natural and human resources are important for firm competitiveness. At the same time it brings out the significance of these factors for the respective firms in the wider southeastern zone of Europe.local authorities; firm competitiveness; management and control; cluster analysis; Southeastern Europe