Economic culture of Local Action Group (LAG) communities from peripheral regions. Evidence from Poland

DOI: 10.14254/2071789X.2021/14-3/4 ABSTRACT. Studying economic culture fills in the research gap that refers to understanding how soft factors of the European Union's LEADER Programme influence economic growth. The aim of this paper is to present the regional specifics of selected economic culture elements of Local Action Group (LAG) communities from the peripheral regions of Eastern Poland. The research was based on literature analysis, the diagnostic poll method, and statistical analysis (measures of descriptive statistics and the Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA test). The features of economic culture exhibited some similarities in the selected voivodeships, but each of them also had its own characteristics. The normative system in particular voivodeships should be considered internally differentiated at the average level. Such a situation can create positive conditions for LAG development wherever the level of norms acquisition is high (mainly in the Podkarpackie and Lubelskie Voivodeships). In Warmińsko-Mazurskie, the level of trust in agents and organisations beyond LAGs (as prospective cooperation partners) is relatively low. The research outcomes can be the premise to suggest ways and mechanisms for LEADER Programme implementation at the regional level, such as: strengthening identification with the LEADER normative system as well as shaping the normative system in terms of norms referring to the area of economic activity; increasing the bridging social capital component, as this, in particular, seems to be crucial for the ability of organisations to grow and innovativeness.