Analysis of the attractiveness of small towns in the Łódzkie Voivodeship in terms of the development of local entrepreneurship

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is a very important research problem. Its importance has increased due to the recognition of entrepreneurship as one of the key factors of socio-economic development. The smallest cities perceive a particularly important role in the development of local entrepreneurship, as they lose their supra-local significance due to the accelerating globalisation and metropolisation processes, to the benefit of larger centres. In addition, despite the fact that local authorities of small towns undertake a number of measures to stimulate this form of human activity, new threats to the development of local entrepreneurship have recently appeared, resulting from, inter alia, the development of cheap discount stores, the increase in social poverty in the context of recent political events, as well as inflation or the state of the epidemic. As a result, the residents’ willingness to create their own business has also decreased, and thus their development impetus has significantly weakened. The aim of the article is to assess the entrepreneurship potential and economic attractiveness of selected, smallest cities in the Łódź region. In order to identify cities with the most favourable conditions for the development of local entrepreneurship, the method of multidimensional comparative analysis was used, which in the Polish literature on the subject is called the Perkal index. Statistical data from the local data bank of the Central Statistical Office for 2021 was used for the analysis.