Assessing competitiveness of Lithuanian cities

Abstract

Competitiveness issues are comprehensively analysed by different researchers from various perspectives. Most frequently the concept of competitiveness is analysed from the production or service, company’s, economic, urban, regional and national perspectives. However, the analysis and assessment of urban competitiveness is rather scarce (particularly among Lithuanian scientists). Many questions arise while analysing and assessing cities. One of the key questions is why manufacturing and services as well as other sectors flourish in certain urban areas and the population feels comfortable, whereas totally opposite tendencies are observed in other cities. What does the concept ‘a competitive city’ mean? What are the decisive factors, which determine urban competitiveness? In Lithuania strategic plans are developed, aiming to increase competitiveness of a city. Sub-national authorities manage and control different factors and use levers determining competitiveness of individual factors. Nevertheless, the concept of urban competitiveness is not uniformly defined, and the factors that determine the competitiveness of a city are not unanimously identified. There has not been established a uniform urban competitiveness evaluation model. The article introduces methodological guidelines of the urban competitiveness assessment model, developed by the authors, based on the results of theoretical and empirical assessment.