Author(s):
1. Dragisa Mijacic, Maastricht Graduate School of Governance,

Abstract:
Development of business support infrastructure in Serbia is in line with the processes of economic transformation towards a market-oriented economy. The pioneering steps in that regard were initiated through project interventions of numerous international organisations, later on continued through the activities of the line ministry, and development agencies and associations active at a national, provincial/regional or local level. Business support infrastructure in Serbia encompasses business incubators, clusters, industrial zones and technology parts, active on different territorial levels and spread throughout the country. The first business support infrastructure entities were established in 2005, with the registration of the first clusters and business incubators. The number of business support infrastructure entities has been constantly growing since then, and their capacities have become more significant. In Serbia there are 23 registered business incubators, 85 identified cluster initiatives, 92 industrial zones, 2 existing and 4 planned industrial and technology parks, 8 customs-free zones and 66 brownfield locations in Serbia. The paper explores early experience of the success of business support infrastructure in Serbia, and their impact on development of entrepreneurship and micro-enterprises at the local level. The paper will present results of a comparative analysis between entrepreneurship development from cities/municipalities with strong and weak thickness of business support infrastructure elements. Special attention will be given to start-up entrepreneurship, women- and youth-entrepreneurship, as well as to knowledge-intensive and innovation-driven entrepreneurship. At the end, the paper draws conclusions with results that might be interesting both to academia and policymakers in Serbia and other transitional countries of the Western Balkans.

Key words:
Business infrastructure, entrepreneurship, micro enterprises, Serbia

Thematic field:
Business incubators, small business centres, innov

Date of abstract submission:
27.05.2012.

Number of visits:
508

Conference:
REDETE 2012