In order to ensure the innovation-based competitiveness of the Central and Eastern European economies, in each one a more efficient exploitation of human capital is required, through the cultivation and by getting the outmost of the entrepreneurial spirit in conjunction with the active population's creative and innovative features, as it appears in the objective of New Lisbon and Europe 2020 strategies. Based on the entrepreneurial process research model, considering the economical development stage and competitiveness level of Romanian, Hungary, Latvia and Croatia, the paper aims to identify the short-, medium- and long-term effects of entrepreneurship upon the labour market, at the level of each selected country.
One of the most noteworthy objectives of the New Lisbon Strategy concerns a more efficient capitalisation
on human resources in the economies, by highlighting active populations' entrepreneurial,creative and innovative qualities. Moreover the Europe 2020 Strategy aims to guarantee a high level of employment in the
EU member states. In these conditions, arise the challenge to identify factors that influence entrepreneurial
behaviour and its' potential impact on the labour force market within the EU member states. The results of a
previous study nitu-Antonie and Feder, 2012 emphasized that in the case of four Central and Eastern European
CEE country, with the similar economical development levels, namely Romania, Hungary, Croatia and Latvia,
a positive significant relation is present between the general conditions of the national framework, respectively
of the entrepreneurial framework efficiency enhancers and innovation sophistication factors and entrepreneurial
behaviour. However, the entrepreneurial behaviour stimulated by the conditions and factor endowments of
national and entrepreneurial frameworks, does not generate, always simultaneously, positive effects on the
labour market, as for the employment rate and the number of newly created jobs. Consequently, research
extension and furtherance using time-lagged indicators, may lead to clearer results about the role of
entrepreneurship in the labour market dynamics at the level of the four particular countries. The paper is
structured in the next parts: section 2 includes a concise literature review on the impact of entrepreneurial
framework upon entrepreneurship and of entrepreneurial behaviour effects on labour market dynamics, the
conceptual model of entrepreneurial process and research assumptions, section 3 shows the variables, data used
in and results of econometric analysis, whereas section 4 deals with conclusions and research limitations.
The present research consolidated the presumption that, in Romania, Hungary, Croatia and Latvia the
entrepreneurial behaviour stimulated by the general conditions of the national and entrepreneurial framework
does not generate simultaneously positive effects on the labour market. Only for a time-lag of at least three
years, entrepreneurship remains an employing factor for labour force. Outcomes on the labour market are set by
the interaction effects of firms' market entries and exists Carod et al., 2008. The emergence of new firms,
encouraging entrepreneurship due to opportunity- and necessity-driven entrepreneurship, are at the same time
creating and destroying jobs, because they encourage competition and have as finality the exit of less efficient
firms from the market. The analysed period included also the beginning economic recession, characterized by
an increase in the number of unemployed population. The first years of the recession led to a necessity-driven
self-employment,rather as ''disguised form of unemployment"than as a result of a true entrepreneurial spirit manifestation,
with simultaneous negative effects on labour force market. At the same time, the transition of
entrepreneurs to employee status is less likely, while people with entrepreneurial skills who created new firms
from necessity, have had in time a positive impact on employment rates on the labour market. Besides, prior to
the economic recession, the micro-enterprise sector from the selected countries included also qualified
individuals with entrepreneurial skills, who voluntarily have chosen self-employment, generating in time,
through the newly created firms, a growth in the employment rate.
Research outcomes demonstrated that the objective of Europe 2020 Strategy referring to a high level labour
employment assurance in the EU member states is feasible only in the conditions when public authorities from
the selected countries stimulate the entrepreneurial behaviour, through improving the institutional framework in
which it manifests, thro ugh reduced taxation and review of national regulations for employed workforce.
Finally, it should be underlined that the inclusion in the research model and analysis of entrepreneurial
behaviour manifested by the domestically and internationally active large and established firms, known as
entrepreneurship, as well as describing the labour market through multiple growth indicators could provide
supplementary information and explanatory power to the conducted research. The development of the research
model by eliminating these research limitations and the identification of entrepreneurial influences on the
labour market at the level of all EU member states with the same level of economic development stage, in the
conditions of necessary data publishing, constitutes the future research directions.
