Entrepreneurial Initiative and Regional Development. Case Study of Gorj County (Romania)

Abstract

The entrepreneurial sector has hardly existed in Romania before 1989. Usually this was restricted to rural spaces, excluded from the cooperative system, and generally, it did not extend beyond a familial level. The connection between the entrepreneurial initiative and the functional structuring of the geographic space is obvious in the light of the changes met at the level of the territorial system components and of the relations among them. The drastic regression of the mining industry, after 1990, spatially resulted into a decrease of regional and local economies: for example, in 2005, the Gorj County repositioned into the ninth place. Gorj County is the owner of certain competitive advantages, namely, natural resources and the relatively low costs in exploiting them. This current situation offers a degree of stability to the economic development, which on long term could be questionable. The high dependence of the county and of its many towns and communes on the mining and quarrying sector may represent a high risk on medium and long term. However, given the relatively rapid restructuring process of the mining activities, the economic decrease was balanced by the contribution of the entrepreneurial sector. Worth mentioning is one of the territorial development roles played by the entrepreneurial sector which consisted in running detailed analyses based on a complex set of economic indicators. Results of these analyses, showed a crucial need for a strong entrepreneurial sector to be developed in order to reduce disparities generated by the economic decline following 1990. Presently, the numerous strategies initiated have been inefficient since an integrated global approach, able to benefit from the considerable territorial capital, is required.

Keywords

• Central Europe
• Cultural landscape
• Icons
• Transformation
• Entrepreneurial initiative
• Gorj County
• Firms
• Disparities
• Growth poles