Changes in the administrative hierarchy of cities and entrepreneurship in suburban areas (the cases of Kielce and Radom)

The systemic transformation of Poland after 1989 led to an acceleration of restructuring processes both in the national economy and in individual regions. The dynamics of changes was exceptionally high in rural areas. The most rapid changes occurred in areas which are situated within the range of the direct influence of bigger cities. This paper strives to compare the changes in entrepreneurship which took place in the suburban areas of Kielce and Radom during the transformation period, before and after the introduction of the administrative reform in Poland. We sought answers to the following questions: - What differences occur in the dynamics of changes of the entrepreneurship indicator in suburban areas in case of two cities of a similar size, of which only Kielce has remained the regional (voivodship) capital? - What differences occur in the dynamics of changes of the entrepreneurship indicator in relation to the distance from the central city? In order to answer the above questions, the entrepreneurship indicators for agriculture, industry and service sectors were calculated for the analysed areas between 1995 and 2005