The Barriers and Opportunities to the Development of Small Business in Rural Areas

Abstract

The study presenting and analysing the barriers and opportunities for small business development in rural areas of Poland and Lithuania. The scientific problem -how to develop small business in rural areas and what kind of support measures would benefit business developers. Symmetric research in the form of a survey was conducted among 50 researchers-economists from the University of Agriculture in Krakow and in Agricultural Academy of Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas. The research is of a pilot nature and constitute grounds for continuing research into the research issues undertaken.The aim of the study was to identify, evaluate and compare barriers and opportunities for small business development in rural areas of Lithuania and Poland and to propose effective incentives for such kinds of businesses. The main barriers to the development of enterprises in Poland include high pension contributions and a complicated VAT paying system. In Lithuania it was indicated poor economic conditions in rural areas and related unemployment and poverty of some of their inhabitants. In Poland, huge opportunities for the development of entrepreneurship were perceived in the opening-up of eastern markets and support from the European Union's funds. In Lithuania -in professional consulting and the use of aid from the EU.

Research on Rural Entrepreneurship in Terms of the Literature: Definition Problems and Selected Research Issues

“…the importance of research on rural entrepreneurship is also emphasised by the fact that it is recognised by the EU and other international organisations (including the UN, OECD) as a critical component of regional and international policy, which favours the inclusion of rural areas in contemporary civilisation processes (Strano et al 2012). Currently, most research on rural entrepreneurship is conducted in highly developed countries, mainly in the USA and Europe, including Germany, the UK, Spain and Greece (calispa Aguilar 2021; Pato, texteira 2016), but in the 1990s, it also appeared in the Polish literature (jabłoński 1991;Hunek 1993;Szydłowski 1993;Gałaj 1993;Bylicki et al 1995;Kołodziejczyk 1995;chyłek 1996;Barczyk et al 2019;Pawlik, Dziekański 2021). In Poland, growing interest in this issue resulted from the systemic transformation of the state in which private property was recognised as the primary form of ownership, and entrepreneurship as the main factor of the country's socio-economic development.…”

New Approach to determining the economic potential of rural area on the example of the South Bohemian region of The Czech Republic

“…These data indicate that one in four citizens of this economic and political group lives in rural areas. Many of them are in the middle and lower property class (Barczyk, Musial, Zukovskis 2019, Anyakoha, 2019. Outside the EU, such situation is even clearer, especially in rural areas of developing countries (Ksoll, Lilleor, Lonborg, Rasmussen 2016).…”

“…As a result of the downturn of the traditional handicrafts in the country, the predominant incomes from non-agricultural sources are important. The share of agricultural income continues to decline, right now at a slower pace (Pastusiak 2017;Barczyk et al 2019). This process is exacerbated by the outflow of young people from the rural areas (Bosworth, Turner 2018).…”