Significant determinants of business environment in the segment of small and meduim-sized enterprises

Abstract

Small and medium enterprises (SME) represent an essential part of an economic system as they positively influence important macroeconomic data. The aim of this article is to define significant determinants of quality of business environment of SME in the Czech Republic and to quantify differences between selected social groups of entrepreneurs. We compare entrepreneurial opinions dividing them by gender, education, age and their companies' size. The data was obtained through own research of business environment. Only 24% of respondents stated they did not experience corruption and cronyism in their entrepreneurial activities. We discovered statistically significant differences in entrepreneurs' opinions according to their gender, education and their companies' size. As much as 71% of respondents opined that the media do not inform sufficiently about the importance of entrepreneurship for society. Moreover, entrepreneurs evaluate the commercial banks' attitude to their financing with caution. As for the intensity of business risks, 62% of businessmen declared it has increased after the crisis of 2008. We also found out statistically significant differences in the perception of business risks by various types of entrepreneurs dividing them by education, their companies' size and age.