Assessment of regions using an index for a location’s attractiveness for business development

Abstract

A system of 36 regional-level indicators is selected to create a new index measuring a location’s attractiveness for business development (the LA-index), on the criteria of intelligence, networking and infrastructure, sustainability, digitalisation, learning, agility, innovativeness and knowledge. Business establishment is defined by nine indicators. Overall, the research data include 5,170 observations. The methodology presented is suitable for assessing the attractiveness of any region if the necessary data are available. We use correlation analysis and the Granger causality test to analyse the impact of business attractiveness on the establishment of new businesses. The main findings reveal that attractiveness for business development has a positive impact on the establishment of new businesses, but the determinants and time lags of this impact vary depending on the level of economic development of the region. The paper contributes to the regional economic development literature by exploring the concept of a location’s attractiveness using the smartness approach, and by discovering the time lags of the impact of this on the establishment of new businesses. The paper provides original empirical evidence, which helps policy makers to develop more accurate strategies and decision-making process based on smartness determinants and delayed effect (impact over time).