Relationships between factors of regional competitiveness in Central and Eastern Europe
Relationships between factors of regional competitiveness in Central and Eastern Europe

Summary/Abstract: The divide between the eastern and western parts of the European Unionhas been widely discussed. However, significant territorial differences areundoubtedly present even within the narrower eastern region of the EU. Thisstudy focuses on the competitiveness of regions in Central and Eastern Europe(CEE). The analysis relies on the pyramid model, the theoretical background ofwhich provides the basis for investigating the factors affecting thecompetitiveness of the 51 NUTS 2 regions across six CEE countries. Partial leastsquares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) is applied to examine therelationships and effect mechanisms between the model’s factors (morespecifically, between the latent variables representing the factors). We haveadapted our general model to the so-called overperforming and underperformingregions described by Iammarino et al. (2019), exploring the connections of theircompetitiveness factors in this context. Research results reveal that the effectmechanisms observed between the above-mentioned regions are completelydifferent. Various factors can be considered as either important or less decisivein terms of competitiveness development, which could have implications forregional policy moving forward.

• Details
• Contents