Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

EVALUATION OF MUNICIPAL PROGRAMS FOR SUPPORT TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

2017; Volume: 19; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

2545-4439

Izet Zeqiri, Ninko Kostovski, Dana Gapkovska,

Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences

The role of the small and medium size enterprises as providers of employment and contributors to the well-being of the local communities is not questioned in the in the today’s globally changing society. As the small entrepreneurs usually start serving local markets, their close social environment is deciding influencer to their establishment, survivability and growth. Knowing that and having in mind that the unemployment is especially high among the young population in the larger urban communities, many municipalities are designing and implement various entrepreneurship business nurturing initiatives such as business development centers, incubators, job clubs, training centers and even some of them establish local funding vehicles.The purpose of our research is to explore the small business promotion social policies and interventions at local municipal level in case of Republic of Macedonia. We survey the perception of usefulness of the entrepreneurship training program for young population offered by one large urban municipality in Skopje as well as its general awareness about the various entrepreneurship promotion programs in the country and the availability of seed financing. Results from our survey show that the training programs are perceived as successful in in encouraging the participants to at least consider startingown venture in due course. However, the results show low awarenessof the availability of other such programs and financing opportunities for start-ups. We believe that our research could help in the design of the future similar interventions in the urban communities, including training, business advice and funding opportunities.