Determinants of SME location in a suburban area: Evidence from the Gdańsk–Gdynia–Sopot Metropolitan Area

Abstract

Given the importance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the European economy, it is essential to have adequate information about the various factors that determine their choice of location. However, the size of a company is often an aspect not covered in theoretical studies and empirical research on industrial locations and urban planning. This article examines the place of residence as a stimulator of SME development in suburbs. Multidisciplinary research carried out in the Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot Metropolitan Area, known as the Tricity, confirms this trend. The location determinants of SMEs in suburban areas were identified using a questionnaire. The survey was conducted in 251 enterprises located in seven municipalities with the highest suburbanisation rates within the Tricity. The study confirms that the municipalities characterised by the highest intensity of suburbanisation processes have higher business activity than other municipalities. Location decisions were largely made by business owners in line with behavioural theory. This means that SME owners more often consider personal factors than cost or demand factors. From the perspective of an entrepreneur, living conditions, the quality of public space, education and healthcare are significant.

Factors influencing location choice and cluster pattern of manufacturing small and medium enterprises in cities: evidence from Khulna City of Bangladesh

“…Location-specific factors like availability of low-cost space, suitable transport facility, and agglomeration were found to have more influence on location selection of the manufacturing SME entrepreneurs of Khulna City. Prevailing literatures on location choice, consistently with this finding, demonstrate that the availability of space and accessibility to improved transport system (Van Noort and Reijmer, 1999;Martyniuk-Peczek et al, 2017); proximity to the central business district and direct access to major roads (Kupke and Pearce, 1998); and agglomeration of similar firms (Kim, 2015) are important factors in location choice of SMEs. Unlike the findings of Jones and Woods, 2002;Renner, 1947 which suggest access to utility, availability of labourers, and proximity to source of raw materials are important location selection factors, this study found these factors to have less impact on entrepreneur's location selection in the context of Khulna.…”

“…Again these factors can be grouped as 'hard factors' which include production space, market proximity, and transports which are measurable in terms of cost and secondly 'softly factors' quality of life, attitude of community etc. which are immeasurable in terms of cost and relate to subjective judgment (Martyniuk-Peczek et al 2017). Another classification by Vaillant et al (2012) includes infrastructure and economic motivation, personal motivation, and location-related motivations.…”

“…This implies that the location decision of firms is often context specific and the complexity of such decisions is often influenced by various behavioural, social, and locational characteristics. Martyniuk-Peczek et al (2017) claimed that existing location theories and empirical studies do not focus on size difference of firms which certainly has impact on location decision and SMEs are often ignored from such studies. Very few researches could be found explaining location behaviour of SMEs especially in the context of Bangladesh.…”

Looking for the Optimal Location of an Eco-District within a Metropolitan Area: The Case of Tricity Metropolitan Area

“…There is a lack of complementary research on urban energy efficiency in the context of countries in transition and their suburbs, especially characterized by an edge city model. In this context, the Polish edge city model is a very interesting example because, apart from the predominant residential function, it is characterized by the occurrence, in the suburbs, of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as many other functions [42].…”

Potential Cluster Regions for Manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises in Khulna City of Bangladesh: A Spatial Examination

“…Usually these SMEs collect raw materials from and sell their products in mostly local and within the country market. The firms are mostly located on rented spaces along the major transportation routes of the city, and on leased spaces from different government authorities like Bangladesh Railway and local government Studies of location choices of SMEs suggest a variety of geo-economic factors like space availability, market access, access to raw materials, improved transport system, availability of utility, access to skilful labour, congenial climate, better community, and other services influence firms' location selection and agglomeration pattern in certain location [31], [32]. This study attempted to explore, by applying Kernel Density plot, whether there is any association between spatial agglomeration of each category of manufacturing SMEs and two important spatial variablesproximity to major roads and proximity to rivers.…”