SMART REGIONAL SPECIALIZATION - OPPORTUNITY OR OXYMORON OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

The need to understand and characterize management approaches, especially in their modern context, is becoming particularly important, mostly to test small and medium-sized businesses' ability to adapt to modernization's high demands. According to the research team, several challenges generated by various constraints, external and internal to organizations of this type, are why they fail to reach their growth and development potential. However, such a statement must be a subjected to a severe analysis based on the methodology of a new, modern system of indicators to illustrate SMEs' real readiness and ability to be in line with development trends. The regional sector analysis successfully identifies the prerequisites for these enterprises' development and determines their specific regional potentials. The study analyzes the small and medium-sized enterprise sector in the Balkan countries and within the European Union. The research team identifies the predisposition for small and medium enterprises to regional specialization, application of innovations, technologies, entrepreneurial discoveries, digitalization and strategy, planning, and programming of a new generation.