engleski

Sociological aspects of SME-development in Međimurje county- a case study

The case study of SMEs development in Međimurje County in Croatia During the transition process in Croatia, many new small-scale private enterprises were established. Many small and medium enterprises (former: socially owned enterprises) were completely privatised. Also, the ownership structure of large enterprises was changed. Large-scale enterprises, protected against the market in centrally planned economies, suffer damages from the liberalisation process and deregulation, beacuse of the market changes within the whole economic system. According to some present economic analysis the most developed SME&#8217 ; s activity is identified in the Northern Croatian regions, particularly in the counties Međimurje, Varaždin and Istria. There is an opinion that economic opennes, entrepreneurial tradition and supportive environment have enhanced the development of dynamic SMEs sector, especially in Međimurje, the county wich is very near Slovenia and Hungary. In these paper, which will be based on empirical (survey and interview) and desk data, we wish to explore which economic and socio-cultural factors can explain the development of SMEs in Međimurje, whether some cross-borders factors also influenced the SMS's development in that region and are there some new forms of cooperation among SME firms themselves and big firms within the county or outside it. Some preliminary insights so far suggest that the development of SMEs in Međimurje can be explained in a higher extent by specific cultural values and entrepreneurial tradition than by the influence of supportive formal institutions (Dubini, 1989). At the same time two processes are occuring: a) SME entrepreneurs are not willing broadly cooperate together and make cooperative networks needed for larger, trans-border markets, b) foreign capital is entering this region relatively slowly and it is questionable how it will affect SMEs development. Here we will test two hypotheses. First, collective memory regarding socialist (non-voluntary) forms of cooperation mostly produce negative attitude and mistrust towards new forms of entrepreneurial networking. Partly, this can be also explained with the fact that in the eighties cross-border networks of business oreganisations were stronger in Slovenija (within Alps-Adriatic region ; J. Langer, 1999) than in Croatia. Now it is questionable how supportive institutions (like centers for entrepreneurship, etc.) can produce trust among new entrepreneurship elite and new forms of cooperation? Second, foreign partners prefer more chain links with domestic firms than doing bussines with unstabile networks of firms. If such a thesis would be true, does it mean that vertical integration (by subcontracting) with foreign or large Croatian firms is completelly hostile to the cooperative entrepreneurial networks? Trying to answer to these questions, we want to draw also some policy conclusions regarding SMS development on national (Croatian) and the future of networking among SME firms on inter- regional level.

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