Small and Medium Enterprises and Their Role in Regional Development (Case Bratislava)
Small and Medium Enterprises and Their Role in Regional Development (Case Bratislava)

Summary/Abstract: In this paper we describe how decentralized innovation policy helps to deve-lop innovation through its own instruments, contacts between small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and universities and research institutes. It is based on the preliminary results of research in the Bratislava region.The paper concentrates on the problem of how decentralized economic and in-novation policy helps to develop innovation institutions and human potential. It presents the results of the survey that was carried out by the Economic Univer-sity’s Department of Regional Development and Geography in Bratislava. The survey also intends to investigate the links between SMEs (electro-technical, chemical and machinery industries) and research institutes. The outcome of our investigations has been to show that in spite of the fact that Bratislava has a large industrial and research centre with many possi-bilities for mutual contact between firms and research institutes and universities, it does not, in reality, make full use of the opportunities that exist. Some of the reasons mentioned above include ineffective contact between research institutes and SMEs, ineffective legislation and lack of finance, which have negative ef-fects on the incidence of mutual contact among firms, their internal management, etc. One of the possible ways out of this conundrum is through regional tax reform.

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