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The business sector represents one of the most important parts of the modern economy. It creates and secures most products and services, contributing to most of the sales tax revenues. Business development is not possible without creating a favourable business environment and suitable conditions for creating and entering new business into the market. This paper focuses on the evaluation of some business environment factors in starting a business. Attention is attended to the business environment and funding activities management, including the managerial assessment of proactive, innovative, and business-supporting activities. Besides, this study encompasses the issues of obstacles and barriers to starting a business. The interest of the article is to point out the state and problems in the field of start-up entrepreneurs and the importance of supporting motivational factors and removing barriers by improving the business environment. Methodological tools of the research are classical methods of science analytics, synthesis, and data selection. The basic heuristic approach consists of professional literature on the subject matter, and secondary sources obtained from European Commission, Eurostat - Flash Barometer, and the World Bank to monitor selected indicators of the business environment and SMEs in Slovakia, EU-27 countries and the world. The primary information was represented with the questionnaire-based survey conducted throughout the Slovak Republic, in which a total count of 426 respondents participated. For hypothesis testing, the Friedman Test, Kolmogorov - Smirnov test, and Kruskal - Wallis test was used. The empiric results confirmed the significant differences between motivational factors for starting doing business. At the same time, there are still significant barriers to enter the business in Slovakia, which considerably limit the further development of doing business in Slovakia. The article provides recommendations for improving the business environment's current status and entering into business in the Slovak Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to identify the role of innovations in overcoming the problems arising out of activities within insurance companies. Against the background of fluctuating marketing environment and high level of business risks, the staff of insurance companies is in high demand of scientifically substantiated recommendations on the very innovations which could bring business processes to more increased efficiency level. The research of innovative activities within insurance companies in this paper is done using the following logical sequence: the place of innovations in the deployment of 4 Industrial Revolutions and their role in the modern insurance business (within Ukraine and abroad) about its fundamental and subsidiary business processes is displayed; common problems of national insurance companies and selected risk factors varying in terms of customer market (B2B or B2C), experience and foreign capital participation are described; the most practical innovative solutions for mitigation of identified risks in activities within insurance companies are suggested. The research presents the results of the sample survey of 52 insurance companies. The survey focused on hypotheses relating to as follows: threats to the business environment of insurance companies; directions for employment of innovations to develop insurance companies' business; differences in assessment of threats to business environment; differences in opportunities and directions of innovations. IBM SPSS 20 software was used for processing of the data obtained. The following research methods were used to analyse the data: frequency distribution of variables, cross-tabulation and nonparametric tests of variables. The research confirms that from 51.5 to 77% of Ukrainian insurance companies are faced with some difficulties in their performance. The risk factors being the most relevant for insurance companies are low paying capacity of customers at the insurance market (1st place), high competition (2nd place), imperfect legislation (3rd place). The research identified the following significant problems associated with company internal environment: lacking a definite strategic business development plan (1st place), problems involving qualified staff (2nd place) and problems with the interaction of structural units (3rd place). The research empirically lends support to specific directions of putting into practice and nature of innovations necessary for countering specific threats in their activities. Research findings can be of some practical value for improved efficiency of business processes both for Ukrainian and foreign insurance companies operating under the conditions of ever-changing factors of the business environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]