The main results of the SEEGROW project can be summarised into three groups of new academic knowledge, tools and methods.
The first group of novel insights examines the nature of peripheral capitalism in SEE, with reflections on the middle-income trap and constraints and opportunities that come from a position of peripherality in the global economy. By mapping the dynamism of Serbia’s growth model over the past 15 years, SEEGROW argues that with the aid of ICT, drivers of growth have gone beyond the model that is based on the attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI) and multinational companies (MNCs). Identifying exporting SMEs as important contributors to exports, value added and innovation, the project argues that political economy literature needs to acknowledge the role of diverse firms in the development process, rather than focus on one ideal type of firm. Moreover, inclusion of SMEs in the process of economic upgrading and innovation in the periphery can have important political implications because such economic dynamics can reconfigure domestic growth coalitions.
The second group of novel insights addresses the issue of regional and spatial inequalities in SEE and examines whether exporting SMEs could contribute to a more spatially inclusive form of development. From the policy perspective, the question ties into the already existing institutional framework of CEFTA – the regional free trade agreement, whose mandate is to promote inclusive regional integration. SEEGROW shows that smaller firms are immensely interdependent with the environments within which they operate and that their international competitiveness also stems from their ability to successfully leverage on their communal resources and local public goods. Finding ways to preserve and enhance this collective infrastructure is often more of a priority for them than market expansion and technological progress. The conclusion is that designing supranational, national and sub-national institutions which can support such efforts by facilitating local and translocal cooperation among competitive exporting SMEs would lead to a more inclusive form of regional economic integration.
The third group of novel insights advances our theoretical understanding of how firms can act as developmental agents in semi-peripheral areas which are often trapped by both government and market failures. Such an approach advances our knowledge about development agency in the semi-periphery. The aim of this theoretical contribution is also to support the process of non-hegemonic knowledge between different areas of the world, cutting across the traditional global North and South divide in the political economy and international development literatures. There is currently little appreciation that “left behind” areas falling out of development in core countries can learn from the experiences of semi-peripheral places in post-socialist Central Eastern and Southeast Europe, post-2008 crisis Southern Europe, and beyond.
In parallel to research activities, the Individual Fellow participated in targeted training activities aimed at boosting their excellence and developing new transferable skills. A wide range of dissemination, communication and exploitation activities were also carried out to maximise the impact of SEEGROW.
