Regional Formation and Development Studies

In the world of the globalised economy, local socio-economic structures are gaining importance again. The economies of European countries, including Poland, are mostly based on SMEs, which constitute the majority of all enterprises, employing more than half of the employees in the national economy. In this context, local initiatives that bring together entrepreneurs operating in the area, local government bodies and scientific centres, should be considered, which, by working together, influence local development. The aim of the article is to show the importance of the SME sector against the background of trends in global entrepreneurship. The authors ask whether local government can stimulate local entrepreneurship in the SME sector, and consider the effectiveness of Local Economic Development workshops, referring to the example of the Otwock district. Workshops in Local Economic Development based on the model of the American workshops have developed practical results in the form of ready-to-implement projects. Moreover, they have revived the network of local contacts that is vital for regional entrepreneurship.

The paper deals with the situation of entrepreneurship in three rural cross-border regions of Lithuania bordering on Kaliningrad Region and Poland, i.e. with Jurbarkas, Šilutė, and Vilkaviškis districts. The entrepreneurship factors in rural areas have been summarised, the outcomes of the research in the entrepreneurship factors of the rural areas of Lithuanian cross-border regions have been presented, and the factors impeding business development in the region have been named. In the contemporary society, the significance of the impact of entrepreneurship in economic, social, and psychological processes of the society development has been increasing. The direction of the society progress and the trajectory of its development is related to its members’ entrepreneurship abilities and opportunities. Individual’s entrepreneurship contributes to the perception and identification of the new opportunities of activity development, thus increasing the social welfare.

The tasks of the article are: 1) to survey the EU and the Lithuania documents about R&D priorities and initiatives; 2) to analysis the situation of published applications according to date of filing the application; 3) to determine the main R&D smart specialization directions according to published subclasses of International Patent Classification. To achieve these goals the analysis of scientific literature and survey research was used. The study reviewed 2005–2013 the Lithuanian State patent official Gazette and implemented published patent applications situation analysis.

The purpose of this article is to highlight the aspects of integration of entrepreneurship into higher education (Educational sciences) in Lithuania and Latvia. The article maintains that proper entrepreneurial competencies are required to successfully start, operate and ensure the new business in the marketplace. From an educational perspective, scholars are primarily concerned with the development of individual-level competencies for entrepreneurship. Therefore the following question arises: what competencies for entrepreneurship should individuals be able to manifest when facing an entrepreneurial venture? More specifically, from educational and higher education perspectives, the question is: what competencies for entrepreneurship should universities address in their curricula for graduate programmes specifically in Educational sciences. Models of students’ entrepreneurial competencies are highlighted theoretically and some empirical insights on which competencies students in Educational sciences from Lithuanian and Latvian universities would like to have acquired are provided. The article presupposes that competence–based education can be designed to promote entrepreneurial activity among university students.

The aim of the article is to analyse the determinants and good practices in using knowledge as a factor in the development of entrepreneurship at local level. The article consists of three sections. In the first section, the authors discuss the genesis of perceiving knowledge as a factor of socio-economic development. In the second part, the understanding of the concept of local development in the view of various economic theories is presented. Finally, section three provides an overview of international research and experience in the modelling of development based on knowledge and entrepreneurship.