ECONOMIC RESILIENCE AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP - RURAL ROMANIA CASE STUDY -

Abstract

In the last decades, the debates quite often focused upon the entrepreneurial economy and entrepreneurial capitalism. By their characteristics: innovation, close links with the community, high dynamics, optimum use of local resources, job creation, the small and medium-sized enterprises have a positive impact upon development, mainly at local and regional level. The entrepreneurship became an instrument for the economic and social development in the rural areas.

After EU integration, in Romania the rural entrepreneurship capacity to have an active contribution to sustainable economic growth, to provide jobs and contribute to the general welfare increase has an optimizing trend because: the number, diversity and relevance of entrepreneurial initiatives have an increasing trend as well the entrepreneurs’ innovating capacity.  Thus, the optimism generated by Romania’s joining the EU and the new funding opportunities were fructified by the Romanian rural entrepreneurs.

Unfortunately, the period of economic crisis that followed immediately after the accession slowed down and even reversed the increasing trend of rural business, and it is the young entrepreneurs that were mostly affected, who were at the beginning of their activities, having less experience in business.

All this makes that the competitiveness of Romanian rural economy to be much lower than the European average, even to the new member states. With a GDP (PPS)/ capita representing 33% of the EU-27 and 75% from the CEE countries, predominantly rural areas of Romania occupies one of the last places in Europe in terms of level of economic development.

 Acknowledgement: This work was supported by the project “Excellence academic routes in the doctoral and postdoctoral research – READ†co-funded from the European Social Fund through the Development of Human Resources Operational Programme 2007-2013, contract no. POSDRU/159/1.5/S/137926