Competitiveness of small towns in Poland – an approach based on the Local Competitiveness Index

Competitiveness is now considered one of the basic economic mechanisms. The phenomenon, which is originally associated with enterprises, has evolved beyond the initial research framework for many years. Currently, the competitiveness of regions or cities is considered a natural law of the modern economy. This phenomenon is primarily compared to the largest cities in terms of urban competitiveness. Competitiveness rankings identify the competitive position of capital cities, metropolises or global cities. It is less common for the scope of research to focus on the competitiveness of medium-sized and small towns. These entities also play a socioeconomic role in the local and regional systems, which should be considered in the context of competitiveness. The purpose of this study is to assess the level of general competitiveness of small towns. The territorial scope covered 112 small towns in Poland. The time scope of the research included three research periods: 2004-2006, 2011-2013 and 2017-2019. To achieve the research objective, an approach was proposed that is based on the constructed Local Competitiveness Index (LCI). The results presented in this article provide a general approach to small towns’ competitiveness. It aims to identify the types of competitiveness of small towns based on sub-competitiveness scores. Based on the degree of integration of the social, economic and environmental aspects of competitiveness, eight types of competitiveness of small towns were identified. The results of the study indicated an improvement in the competitiveness of small towns and an increase in their integration. During the first adopted research period (2004–2006), there was a clear predominance of small towns in types representing partial or complete non-integration. In small urban centers, low integration was observed, regardless of their location in a particular part of the country. Between the years 2011–2013 and 2017–2019, favorable shifts were observed towards the types of partially integrated competitiveness (Types II, III, and IV) and integrated competitiveness (Type I).