THE ACTIVITY OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENTS IN THE AREA OF CREATING LOCAL INNOVATION (BASED ON THE EXAMPLE OF LUBLIN COUNTIES, POLAND)

The aim of the article is to characterize and evaluate the activities undertaken since 2010 by the local governments of selected Lublin counties aimed at strengthening local innovation, under the provisions of the local innovation strategy (LIS). The article indicates the activities specified in the LIS that should be intensified to improve its innovation and the activities which affect the possibility of increasing the innovativeness of communes. In each of the counties, seven local commune governments were chosen, in which the survey was conducted using an interview questionnaire addressed to the representatives of local authorities. The results indicate that the pro-innovation activities of the surveyed local governments should be regarded as insufficient, taken in a selective and not very common manner, they rarely go beyond the standard activities. As such, they are not an effective factor in the processes of local innovation. In particular, local authorities were too little involved in building local knowledge capital. It has been shown that, in this field, it is reasonable to strengthen the institutional environment of the implementation of the LIS. Moreover, local governments insufficiently built the basis for strengthening the innovation of the selected key sectors of the local economy. It was indicated that greater activity of the local authorities is justified in the creation of long-term core programmes for the stimulation of commune innovation.