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This paper compares how Czech and Slovak microentrepreneurs perceive the volume and ease of access to finance that they face. Having an adequate number of sources of finance and easier access to them can help improve both enterprise and country performance. Chi-square and Z score tests for population proportions were used to test hypotheses. 740 microenterprises from Czech Republic and 287 microenterprises from Slovakia were included for the analyses that were performed by this study. The results show that Czech microentrepreneurs feel they have more sources of finance and have easier access to them than their Slovak counterparts. These differences may in part be linked to other factors such as the experience and age of microentrepreneurs and micro-firms, amount of business loans and microfinancing organizations, credit interest rates and credit rejection rates, the relative degree of economic freedom, the volume of government guarantees, relative GDP levels, the quality of business environment and ease of doing business. Additionally, The Moran’s I spatial autocorrelation index was performed to evaluate influence of location on the perception of Czech and Slovak microenterprises that were located in different regions of both countries. The paper also discusses the results’ policy implications for governments and financial institutions. © 2019 The Author(s). Published by VGTU Pr., Internal Grant Agency of Univerzita Tomase Bati ve Zline [IGA/FaME/2019/002]

Risk-taking and competitive aggressiveness, substantial elements of the entrepreneurial orientation of SMEs, have a significant impact on the management of SMEs. The aim of this contribution is to define the importance of these elements and to quantify the differences between entrepreneurs in terms of entrepreneur’s gender and education, and company’s age and size. Our research conducted in 2015 in the Czech Republic revealed some significant specifics within the relationships among gender, risk and competitive aggressiveness in the field of SMEs. Statistically significant differences between the designated social groups were compared through Pearson statistics at the significance level of 5%. According to our results since male and higher educated managers more intensively incline to initiative, to the realization of riskier projects and to aggressiveness against competitors, management of the entrepreneurially oriented companies should include these type of team members in order to formulate riskier and more competitively aggressive strategies. Companies which operate on the market for more than 10 years have a positive attitude and the “need” of risk and aggressive behaviour towards its competitors. © 2016, Czestochowa University of Technology. All rights reserved., Podejmowanie ryzyka i agresywna konkurencja, stanowią bardzo istotne elementy działalności małych i średnich przedsiębiorstw, mające znaczący wpływ na ich zarządzanie. Celem tego artykułu jest podjęcie próby określenia znaczenia tych elementów oraz wyznaczenie różnic między przedsiębiorcami w zakresie płci przedsiębiorcy, w Czechach. Badanie wykazało istotne różnice w ramach relacji pomiędzy płcią, ryzykiem i agresywną konkurencją w obszarze MŚP. Statystycznie istotne różnice między wyznaczonymi grupami społecznymi zostały porównane przy wykorzystaniu współczynnika korelacji Pearsona na poziomie istotności 5%. Wyniki badań w sposób jednoznaczny pokazują, ze istnieje p

The aim of this paper was to define and quantify the most important attributes of entrepreneurs in the segment of small and medium-sized enterprises. The partial objective was to compare the opinions of the entrepreneurs in relation to their gender, age and level of education. Scientific questions, defined in this paper, were verified through empirical research conducted in the Czech Republic in 2015 on a sample of 1,141 entrepreneurs. In our research, we found that entrepreneurs consider expertise, responsibility and perseverance to be the most important personal characteristics and skills. Propensity to risk and decisiveness are ranked right after them. The same group of three most important attributes is presented by all defined groups of entrepreneurs, which means that the assessment of the importance of these attributes remains the same regardless of gender, age and level of education of the entrepreneur. It is interesting that the weight of the expertise increases with the age of the entrepreneur. This trend is caused by the fact that men significantly more intensively presented this opinion. When evaluating the attitudes of entrepreneurs to other characteristics and skills no significant differences in relation to gender, age and education were identified.

IntroductionTraditional annual budgets belong to the common managerial tools, which are used by majority of organizations for different purposes. These traditional budgets are mostly based on annual accounting periods and are connected with forecasting elementary financial indicators as far as evaluation of performance of decentralized business units and managers. (Drury, 2001; Garrison et al., 2012; Kemp and Dunbar, 2003). Budgeting is often connected with planning activities, which is defined as the design of a desired future and effective ways of bringing it about (Ostergren & Stensaker, 2011; Ackoff, 1981). Alternatively, budgets are considered as detailed plans (Drury, 2001), or as plans transformed into currency units (Kral, 2010). In budgets the strategic ideas are transformed into understandable operative actions (Hanninen, 2013).In literature we can find evidence that traditional budgeting is mostly based on mechanical transformation of a non-financial forecast into financial statements, without focus on real needs of an organization (Doyle, 2003). Doyle (2003) explains the problems with inflexibility of traditional budgets as the important limitation and an inability to take on board changes in a business environment that occur throughout a year. Strong criticism of problems related to the traditional budgeting mechanisms was presented by Hope and Fraser (2003). Their critique primarily focused on the inability of traditional budgeting to reflect the real performance of the organization and utilize the performance as the significant factor of employee evaluation. Other authors complement (Hanninen, 2013; Libby & Murray, 2007) that traditional budgeting is a relic of the past ages and cannot be useful in conditions of changes and requirements of today's business world.Traditional budgeting have been broadly criticised for various reasons and limitations. Stewart (1990) claimed that budgeting is "inefficient, ineffective and incomprehensive". Drury (2001) explains how the budgets could get into conflict, if the organization uses general budget for several purposes, such as motivation and planning. Bourne (2005) refers to budgeting and planning as an annual ritual for numerous companies that do not consider adding significant value to the process. The solution proposed by Bourne (2005) is to understand the strengths and weaknesses of budgeting and use additional mechanisms, thereby eradicating such weaknesses. Managers in research generally agree that budgeting is inefficient and ineffective, even though the majority of respondents only estimate the volume of resources defined when budgeting. According to Lidia (2014), budgets represent one of the most controversial managerial tool. Budgets are also very often criticized for being time-consuming (Libby and Lindsay, 2010; Schmidt, 1992). Prendergast (2000) states that the budgeting process requires a lot of guesswork which takes up a lot of managerial time. Indeed, Neely et al. (2003) state that the budgeting process actually consumes up to 20% of all managerial time. Nazli Nik Ahmad et al. (2003) argue that budgets do not take into account the aspects of customers and quality, and prove ineffective in a changing environment. Neely et al. (2003) report on several limitations of traditional budgets, as identified in the analyzed studies. Similar limitations of the traditional budgets and it's linkage to the strategy in East European context had been voiced by Boiko (2013). Intensive discussion about the budget limitations involved, the different types of solutions. Bunce et al. (1995) noted that the alternative to traditional budgets is not budgetary improvement but an advanced management procedure.Wide discussion regarding the limitations of the traditional budgeting practices (Eckholm and Wallin, 2000; Hope and Fraser, 2003; Jensen, 2001; Schmidt, 1992; Luigi et al., 2014) involved the introduction of alternative budgeting methods, such as Activity-Based Budgeting (ABB) (Drury, 2000) and Beyond Budgeting (Hope and Fraser, 2003). …

This paper presents a theoretical and methodological model of measurement of the quality of business environment in the segment of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and introduces an IQSME index. The paper presents the way of selection and definition of the important factors that form business environment, the analysis of their interconnections and quantification of their influence. According to the results of the application of the created model we can state that the conditions for doing business in the Czech Republic are quite challenging. The value of IQSME for the Czech Republic is at the lower end of the range of possible values. We found that Czech entrepreneurs quite negatively evaluate the government’s approach and its attempts to develop suitable conditions for doing business, the attitude of the financial market players in providing the opportunities of external financing for their entrepreneurial activities, current level of business risks, but are satisfied with the attitude of their surroundings to their business activities. © Foundation of International Studies, 2016.

This article defines and quantifies important factors of the quality of the business environment for small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) in the Czech Republic. To do so, itcompares the attitudes of entrepreneurs categorized by gender, education, age and firm size. A study of the business environment was conducted in 2015 from a sample of 1,141 respondents (the owners of companies), and the results were analyzed. It was found that only 10% of the entrepreneurs positively evaluated the applicable forms of state financial support. The study also demonstrated no statistically-significant response differences among the designated social groups. 64% of Czech entrepreneurs feel the support of their surroundings while doing business, 45% think that SMEs have restricted access to external sources of financing, and over half note the intensive influence of market risk. It was also determined that there are statistically-significant differences in the pattern of responses between men and women and between micro-enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises., [IGA/FaME/2015/022]

The aim of this article was to define, quantify and compare the significant attributes of business risk for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the selected regions of Slovakia. The data was collected through a questionnaire. The whole research was conducted in the Bratislava region on a sample of 102 SMEs, in the region of Trencin on a sample of 105 SMEs and in the Zilina region on a sample of 168 SMEs. Thus we compared important factors of business risk in the most economically developed region of the Slovak capital to the average regions of Trencin and Zilina. On the basis of the results of our research, we can conclude that the most important business risk is market risk in all regions. The average value of perceived market risk was higher than 50%. For this reason entrepreneurs have indicated the existence of negative trends in performance and profitability of their companies.

The issue of payment discipline is strongly interconnected with the competitiveness of companies. The aim of this article is to examine the opinions of entrepreneurs from SMEs in Slovakia on the payment discipline issue and its consequences, including the risk of insolvency and lowered competitiveness, and to compare the results in terms of the defined social groups. The entrepreneurs were divided into monitored groups according to the following criteria: gender, age ( groups: younger than 35, 36 to 45 years old, and older than 45) and level of education (groups: university educated, other level of education). This article is based on the research conducted in the Slovak business environment in 2016. The results showed that payment discipline represents a major problem in SMEs in Slovakia, a fact confirmed by affirmative replies from more than 67% of the entrepreneurs. While 83% of them noted the existence of problems with overdue receivables, 30% of the respondents acknowledged problems with their own payment discipline and identified secondary insolvency as the most important reason for it.

We examine the issue of pledging collateral and its effect on access to credit, interest rates and credit risk of SMEs financing in Bangladesh with respect to bank size. We also examine the collateral classification (fixed assets collateral, personal guarantee and third-party guarantee) by bank ownership types to find what types of collateral are preferred by public, private and foreign banks in Bangladesh for lending to firms. In addition to that, we examine whether collateral requirements are different between large and small banks as they have different incentives for collateral based lending. Our empirical results suggest that small banks have no additional incentives to provide loans based on the collateral security than large banks. Hence, we did not find any evidence that collateral can increase access to credit for SMEs from small banks. Similarly, we also did not find any effect of collateral on interest rates or collateral security can lower the default rates of the SME loans and the results are similar regardless bank size. With regards to collateral segmentation across bank ownership types and bank size, our regression’s results suggest that each type of banks has its own preferences about collateral requirements while lending to firms. Therefore, we conclude that depending on bank internal policy commercial banks ask for different collateral, which comply with the best interests of banks. © Foundation of International Studies, 2016.

IntroductionSmall and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make a major contribution to growth and employment in the EU. In today's fierce competition in the market economic activities, the SMEs gradually developed into a major force for national economic and social development (Shuying and Mei, 2014).Microenterprises represent an important part of the SME segment. Defined as a small, owner-operated enterprise typically started by a member of a marginalized segment of the population, these businesses take on various organizational forms to contend with entry barriers and capital constraints (Munoz et al., 2015; De Mel, McKenzie, and Woodruff, 2010; Bruhn, 2013).Financial risk management has received increased attention over the past years because of financial risks, though they are not a core competency of non-financial firms, they also influence their business operations, financial performance and the future of the company to a large extend. The ability of SMEs to grow highly depends on their potential to invest in restructuring, innovation and qualification. All of these investments need capital and therefore an access to finance (European Association of Craft, SMEs, 2007).The effect of the access to finance on entrepreneurship and microenterprise growth is of vital importance for poverty reduction and economic growth in developing countries (Beck, Lu, and Yang, 2015).Entrepreneurs' characteristics, such as gender, level of education, age, managerial skills, and experience, in addition to physical and emotional family support, are the important factors that influence business success (Munoz et al., 2015; Kozubikova et al., 2015a; Bartos et al., 2015) and represent significant factors which determine the approach to financial risk management and access to external financing through bank loans (Belas et al., 2015; Dolezal et al., 2015).The aim of this paper is to define and quantify significant risk factors of microenterprises' credit financing in the current dynamic economic environment and to compare the significant position of these undertakings in relation to commercial banks by gender, education of the entrepreneur and the company's age. The paper is based on the survey of the quality of the business environment carried out in 2015 in Czech Republic on a sample of 1141 small and medium sized enterprises, 740 of which were reported as microenterprises. Our research has some limitations, specifically the geographical focus only on the Czech Republic. This problem is significant because country's specific macro environment can also affect the possibility to get the loan by the SMEs (Drakos and Giannakopolous, 2011). A wider geographical focus of the further researches may bring more fundamental results.Theoretical part of this paper introduces the characteristics of a microenterprises, important factors for financing of such type of companies, and the potential influence of the gender and education of the entrepreneur, and the age of the company. The second part of the article presents a detailed description of the research methodology, scientific methods, collected data, and a definition of the alternative working hypotheses. The third chapter of our article presents the results of the research, along with a brief discussion. The final section presents the summary of the essential results of our research.1. Theoretical backgroundMicroenterprises have some characteristic features in comparison with small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). They are typically firms that are smaller than the SMEs, with few employees and often without formal status (Beck, Lu, and Yang, 2015).According to Fetisovova, Hucova, Nagy and Vlachynský (2012) Small and medium sized enterprises have a number of specifics that are related to their size: a lower degree of diversification, low capital strength, limited markets and higher risk. On the other hand, they are more flexible and have a closer contact with customers. …

SMEs make a major contribution to the growth and employment in the EU. In today’s fierce competition in the market economic activities the SMEs had gradually developed into a major force for national economic and social development in every country of world. The aim of this article is to examine the approach to innovativeness and competitive aggressiveness between males and females in the segment of small and medium-sized enterprises. Based on the results of the questionnaire which was conducted in May 2015 in the Czech Republic we tried to test four hypotheses on the relationship between the gender of entrepreneurs of SMEs and their attitude to innovativeness and competitive aggressiveness. The results of our research have pointed out some differences between genders. Men-entrepreneurs who do business in the segment of SMEs in the Czech Republic are slightly more innovative and are significantly more aggressive in regard to competitors than women, as they apply aggressive approach and their companies are perceived as aggressive.

The aim of this article was to determine whether satisfied bank customers were buying more bank products and services from several banks in comparison with clients who were dissatisfied with their bank services. At the same time it was also studied the dependence of buying banking products and the use of banks depending on sex, age and educational structure of consumers. In our research a special questionnaire survey was used, which was subsequently evaluated with the help of mathematical and statistical methods. Our research has not shown that satisfied clients used more banking products as customers who were dissatisfied. It was found that both in Slovakia and the Czech Republic bank customers aged 30 to 50 years old significantly more were buying 3 banking products. Number of banks that are used by Czech banks’ clients depends on customer satisfaction. The research results point to the need for achieving high levels of customer satisfaction. Suitable form of monopolization of relationships with clients allow banks to increase the value of CSI (Cross Selling Index) due to the influence of positive motivational factors, which usually bring the growth of the financial performance of commercial banks. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6p339

The aim of this article was to define, quantify and compare significant factors of the debt financing in the segment of SMEs. The research focused on the significant differences between groups of entrepreneurs, defined in relation to gender, education, size and age of the company, was carried out in the Czech Republic in 2015 on a sample of 1,141 respondents. We found that while the importance of the credit risk increased during the crisis, the level of knowledge of conditions under which commercial banks provide loans is relatively low between entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs presume that the credit conditions in commercial banks are not transparent, but agree that the better knowledge of credit criteria allows for easier access to funding. Substantial differences in the assessment of the factors of credit risk by defined groups of entrepreneurs were identified.

SMEs are frequently experiencing problems with obtaining capital for the expansion and cross-border activities due to their specific characteristics. Smaller enterprises owned or managed by younger entrepreneurs belong to the most vulnerable segment. The aim of this paper is to bring the statistical evidence whether the age of an entrepreneur is a significant factor with the relevant impact on export activities financing in case of SMEs in Slovakia. The presented results are based on the research carried out among Slovak SMEs in 2016 in comparison with the data from the international survey called TwinEnterpreneurs Regional Study that was performed by the Young Entrepreneurs Association of Slovakia and Vienna Business Agency in 2013. Application of Pearson´s chi square statistical analysis of the results brings clear statistical evidence that while the age of the owner is not a significant factor in the export decision making process, it becomes a significant factor in case of the export financing.