IMPORTANCE OF MEASURES TAKEN BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP - A CASE STUDY OF RURAL MUNICIPALITIES IN POLAND

The research objective has been to identify activities undertaken by authorities of rural municipalities with the aim of creating a friendly economic and social environment to establish and develop business enterprises. The research was chiefly based on an analysis of primary data collected with the help of a questionnaire designed by the authors, at the turn of 2015/2016. The survey was addressed to mayors of all rural municipalities in Poland (1565 administrative units in Poland). Fully and correctly completed surveys were returned by 770 respondents, which corresponded to a return rate equal 49.2 % (the error of answers from the sample obtained was 3 %). The research objective was achieved by verifying the hypothesis assuming that authorities from rural municipalities where the increase in the number of enterprises between 2009 and 2018 was the highest were more active creating proper conditions for starting and conducting business. Our analysis of the collected empirical material provided evidence that confirmed the above assumption. The study shows that the authorities of municipalities where there was a high rise in the number of business companies between 2009 and 2018 much more often entered into collaboration with other subjects in order to create an optimal environment for conducting business, were more willing to take measures to increase the participation of entrepreneurs in the creation of suitable conditions for the development of business, and formed more positive assessment of the achieved outcomes.