Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness in the EU Member States, with Special Regard to the Visegrad Countries

Our research primarily aims at studying the competition and competitiveness in the EU internal market, both at the level of the EU and its member states. As the main tool of our analysis, we create three indicators based on the dataset and methodology of the World Economic Forum (WEF). These indicators are to measure the competitiveness of 1) the state, 2) the enterprise sector and 3) the institution of the market in the EU member states. In order to assess entrepreneurship, we apply the GEDI index. Then we compare our findings along the two dimensions. EU member states obviously form two groups along all indicators: the core and the periphery are clearly visible. The Visegrad countries all belong to the periphery but their relative positions within the group are worth studying. Enterprise sector competitiveness calculated according to the WEF methodology and entrepreneurial spirit calculated through the GEDI index show a very strong linear correlation.