Benchmarking of Slovak Regions in Terms of Start-UP Implementation Indicators and Creative Potential Indicators

Abstract

Creative regions contribute to a higher standard of living, are attractive to start-ups, create new jobs, reduce brain drain and attract applicants for university education. The paper aims to compare selected indicators of implementation of start-ups and creative potential in the regions of Slovakia at NUTS 3 level and to quantify their mutual relationship. Benchmarking of 8 Slovak NUTS 3 level regions is based on 2 comparisons, namely: 6 indicators of start-ups implementation (frequency of start-ups, creation of radical innovations, employment in fast-growing companies, venture capital awareness, crowdfunding awareness and possibilities of counselling in the implementation of start-ups) and 6 indicators of creative potential (openness and diversity, human capital, cultural environment, technologies, institutional environment and creative outputs). Numerical values of these indicators are obtained from secondary research studies – e. g. modified Slovak Creative Index, Regional Innovation Scoreboard, Slovak Start-up Report and websites of innovation incubators and crowdfunding platforms. To obtain the true values of these criteria, the analysis of secondary data – desk research and the method of pairwise comparison with 91 respondents (students of Slovak universities of economic orientation with Slovak or Ukrainian nationality) was used to determine the real significance (weights) of the criteria. According to pairwise comparison, the most important indicator of start-up implementation is possibilities of counselling and the most important indicator of creative potential is creative outputs. Consequently, the relationship between the two comparisons is quantified. The global benchmark based on the implementation of start-ups is the Bratislava region, as well as in the case with creative potential. There is a strong correlation (85.5 %) between the scores of the compared regions. The final ranking of the 5 regions out of 8 in both comparisons is also the same. The theoretical contribution is extending of the issue of benchmarking from traditional understanding (products, services, processes) to spatial understanding (region). The main practical contribution of the paper is to identify the weaknesses of each of the compared regions through benchmarking. Its implementation can be the basis for the development of regional strategies and the introduction of new study programs at universities. Keywords: benchmarking, creative potential, region, Slovak Republic, Start-UP.

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