Dynamic entrepreneurship – generator of sustainable economic growth and competitiveness

Fast-growing companies (gazelles) are the main creators of new jobs, revenue growth and vibrant, competitive economy. This paper reviews (a) conditions for dynamic entrepreneurship in Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia and (b) recent studies on dynamic enterprises (gazelles) conducted in these countries. However, since the authors are in the process of launching new research on gazelles (based on the same methodology and selection criteria), which is to be carried out simultaneously in all four countries in 2014, the paper provides (c) discussion on these initiatives and initial results as well. A constant growth of dynamic enterprises and gazelles and their increasing share in the economy presents an invaluable analytical instrument for forecasting overall economic growth in the next period. In order to define favorable, supportive environment for dynamic and sustainable entrepreneurship, the authors addressed the institutional and regulatory environment, level of knowledge of entrepreneurs, access to finance, incentives for introduction of modern technology, innovations, internationalization, etc. The authors also monitored the trends of entrepreneurial development index, entrepreneurial activity index and competitiveness index for each country. Since the integral pilot project was already implemented in Slovenia in 2011, and a number of conclusions were drown, the authors studied the main features of fast-growing companies and differences between the growth factors that affect growing companies in Slovenia, and compared respective results in all four countries. Among factors for growth, the most critical ones in Slovenia were: environmental barriers, management systems, and financing; these factors were further examined in other three countries. In addition, the growth rates of dynamic enterprises were compared with the ones of their European counterparts, and therefore these studies were able to offer an indication of what time is required by the Southeast European gazelles to catch up with their counterparts abroad. The most important findings of this research and its impacts on respective countries, served as a basis for making recommendations for better addressing the phenomenon of dynamic entrepreneurship, sustainable growth and rising competitiveness.1. INTRODUCTIONIn this paper, we present the most important findings of the initial research and comparison of dynamic entrepreneurship that has been carried out in Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Serbia. We find that dynamic enterprises do not significantly differ in growth rates. If backed up by a favorable environment and supportive atmosphere for entrepreneurship, gazelles could catch up with their counterparts in the EU in ten years' time. Among factors for growth, the most critical are: environmental barriers, management systems and financing. Fast growing companies are crucial to the recovery of the economy.Gazelles are the fast-growing companies that create most of the newly created jobs in the national economies. They represent not more than 3-5% of companies in the total number of businesses. These companies can achieve above average growth rates and can operate in any field of activity, even in those with low growth rates. The creator of the name gazelles is David Birch (Birch, 1987), professor of entrepreneurship from Boston MIT and founder of research and consultancy company Cognetics. During the seventies, with a booming Silicon Valley, it was learned that only 3% of the companies (the so- called dynamic businesses, gazelles) both survive and continue to grow.2. THEORETICAL CONTEXT OF DYNAMIC ENTREPRENEURSHIPWe have established that entrepreneurship, entrepreneur and the entrepreneurial organization have their roles in the economic science as well as in business science and that entrepreneurship cannot be automatically equated or restricted to small business only, or to the creation of new enterprises. However, both in literature and in everyday life this connection is frequently used and can be attributed to the fact that new economic entities do not emerge unless there is an entrepreneurial approach and entrepreneurs. …