Cooperative Links Between Business in the Context of Local System Resilience. A Case Study of Poland's Peripheral Regions

This study investigates the extent and nature of cooperative links between businesses in the analysed administrative units (communes) in peripheral regions in terms of their effect on strengthening the resilience of local economy. Empirical research was carried out in 2018 in three peripheral regions of Poland on a sample of 240 entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs participated in creating local (commune-level) supply chains while reporting connections with suppliers outside of local systems. Businesses analysed in this study played a key role in enhancing the diversity of local (commune-level) goods and services markets while time taking into account their customers’ requirements. Local cooperation promoted strengthening of the competitive edge of cooperating businesses, becoming a local resilience factor. The characteristics of cooperative links presented in the study revealed that the benefits of local cooperation were appreciated more often in the group of businesses with inferior conditions for running and growing a business. Local economic growth policies in peripheral regions should take into account the assumptions arising from the smart village concept. A vital component of these policies in the context of fostering local innovativeness is the focus on the possibility of stimulating cooperation processes within local business sectors. Such focus of local policies may be seen as aimed at enhancing the resilience of local socio-economic systems.