ENTREPRENEURIAL ENVIRONMENT AT REGIONAL LEVEL: THE CASE OF POLISH PATH TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Globalization process creates fovurable conditions for dynamic development of economic centers both at national and regional level. Yet, it may be an obstacle for growth for peripheral countries and regions. In the European Union one can confirm convergence process at national level. However, in Central European countries the convergence of national economies does not support sustainable growth at regional level and regional convergence process. This situation often leads to the problem of draining up of scarce resources from peripheral regions, which negatively affects their entrepreneurship potential and sustainable socio-economic development. In the longer run this unbalanced spatial growth can become a significant obstacle for welfare improvements. In this context, the purpose of the article is to analyze the quality of entrepreneurial environment in Poland at regional level within the context of sustainability framework. The research was done for NUTS 2 regions in the years 2010-2014. The quality of entrepreneurial environment is considered here as a multiple-criteria phenomenon that should be treated as a latent variable. Thus, in the research Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis was applied. Values of the latent variable were assessed based on confirmatory factor analysis, which provided information on the socio-economic development of Polish regions, which determinates the entrepreneurial conditions. In order to group the regions to homogenous subsets natural breaks method was used. The conducted research confirms the process of improvement of entrepreneurial conditions in most of the NUTS 2 regions in Poland. From the perspective of regional convergence process, on the one hand, one can point some positive factors such as noticeable improvements in some underdeveloped regions. However, the dominance of the central region and significant disparities between the NUTS 2 are still relatively stable and extensive. From the methodological perspective the article shows the applicability of SEM methodology to national and regional analysis with application of data from national statistics.