Development of transport infrastructure and its impact on territorial production

The purpose of this article is the conceptualization and empirical interpretation of the notions of a developed transport infrastructure and developed production, as well as the identification of tools for their measurement in a territory. The main research questions to which the authors intend to find answers in this article are the following: (1) what does it mean (conceptually and empirically) ‘developed transport infrastructure’ and ‘developed production’ in a given territory? (2) how to measure the state of development (i.e., the static level of development) of transport infrastructure and production in a given territory? The article uses the following research methods: a systemic analysis of theoretical findings and empirical evidence from previous studies, a method of means for identifying developed / underdeveloped transport infrastructure/production, and a mapping method to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the country’s transport infrastructure. The results of this study show that, firstly, there are two main approaches to the conceptual understanding of transport infrastructure and production – traditional (narrower) and innovative (wider); secondly, developed transport infrastructure and developed products in the EU country are interpreted empirically with scores above the EU average, thirdly, almost all EU countries demonstrate a developed or undeveloped transport infrastructure and production, regardless of their measurement tools, i.e. different measurement tools show nearly the same result. The results of this study will help the authors in the future, based on quantitative empirical data and case studies, to answer the ‘umbrella’ research question about what is a priority for the economic development of the territory: a developed transport infrastructure or a developed production, i.e. what is the focus for investments in the conditions of objectively limited resources?