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.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are crucial, and not only for the Czech economy. Their sustainable growth is important for the economy of most European countries. Because of this, the issues surrounding their financing, government support and public perception are widely discussed. The problems connected with external financing of SMEs are closely related to effective management of financial risk, which can minimize competition, create better financial structure and increase the firm's competitiveness. Our results of the questionnaire survey in the Czech Republic in 2015 were obtained using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and revealed a factor which the male sample believed to be an important influence on the perception of financial risk is a bank's approach to business. This factor is significantly influenced by knowledge, rules and principles including the knowledge of banks' credit conditions, their transparency and the ability of entrepreneurs to manage financial risks. In the female sample, state and public perception showed to be much more important in the perception of financial risk. Male entrepreneurs mitigate financial risks through a bank's assistance whereas female entrepreneurs emphasize the role of society.

Abstract. Th e issue of business in the segment of small and medium-sized companies is a very actual area of scientifi c research today. Currently, great importance is given to research of personal and knowledge preconditions of people for doing business. Th e aim of this article was to examine the relationship between personality characteristics and approach to the perception and management of business risks. Based on the preferred personality qualities and knowledge the entrepreneurs have been included into two categories, namely they are artist-entrepreneurs and businessmen-laborers, also the diff erences in their entrepreneurial attitudes have been examined. Both groups of entrepreneurs in our research rate market risk as the most important risk, which was demonstrated by a decline in performance of companies during the crisis. Our results showed that there are significant diff erences in the attitudes of these two categories of entrepreneurs in approaching credit risk, where it was found out that the defi ned categories of business have diff erent approaches to knowledge of credit conditions of commercial banks. Th e results of our study have showed a high degree of confi dence of individual groups of entrepreneurs when evaluating their ability to manage fi nancial risks in the company and the high intensity of entrepreneurial optimism regardless of the personal characteristics of entrepreneurs.

Abstract. The main purpose of this article is to show dependencies between education and gender based on selected motivation factors. In order to obtain relevant data, the questionnaire method was used. In the years 2013-2016, 26,416 respondents participated. Descriptive statistics was used for data processing; the relationship between two categorical variables was verified by the chi-quadrate test and Tukey's HSD test. The results of the research proved the hypotheses; i.e. that there are significant differences in motivation factors among Slovak employees related to their gender and education. The most significant motivation factors included basic salary, job security and a good working team. The paper presents an original verifiable methodology that can be used in research of a similar focus in other European countries. The research results point to the potential of various alternatives for business managers responsible for preparing incentive motivation programmes related to the analysed factors.

Abstract. New businesses arising at the market usually operate in the sector of small and medium-sized enterprises and account for a significant part of the whole global economy. Not only the success of a start-up company, but also its sequel within the SME sector are significantly influenced by entrepreneur's personality. The aim of this article is to explore the attitude to financial risk in relation to sociodemographic characteristics (gender, education, age) and the most important personality traits of entrepreneurs (risk-taking, decisiveness, optimism). We have analyzed the data collected from 1141 respondents during 2015 in 14 regions of Czech Republic. Empirical results of our paper show that the researched entrepreneurs rather can't manage financial risks in their firms regardless their gender, education, age or personality traits. Most entrepreneurs consider the importance of financial risk to increase during the crisis period. These opinions differed in relation to age, gender and such personality traits as "decisiveness" and "optimism". The results also show that the entrepreneurs try to minimise the financial risk through building-up reserves in relation to such qualities as "risk-taking" and "decisiveness" in comparison to a rather negative attitude to "optimism".

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.

Research background: The identification of risks and their management is a key task of strategic management. The right and early identification of risk sources can help companies to survive not only during a crisis period. However, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) underestimate the necessity to analyze risks and implement the enterprise risk management (ERM). Purpose of the article: The primary aim of the contribution is to identify the most important non-financial risks and their causes in the V4 countries and to analyze the perception of these risks by SME owners. Methods: The results are based on the survey conducted in 2018. The valid questionnaire of 1781 owners of SMEs from four countries was evaluated and analyzed to fulfil the main objective. The statistical hypotheses were con-firmed through statistical methods such as Z-score and Chi-square test. The SPSS Statistics was used for data evaluation. Findings & Value added: The results can be interesting not only for research organizations investigating the development of SMEs, but also for state institutions or private agencies seeking to adapt national support for SMEs. It was discovered that the entrepreneur’s country is the most important factor for the perception of the sources of safety risk, legal risk, and other business risks. There are differences in managers’ perception in case of other risk sources (corruption and clientelism) between entrepreneurs from the Czech Republic and other countries of the Visegrad Group. The SMEs’ country of origin is an important factor for the evaluation of the source of non-financial risks (safety risk, legal risk and other business risks). Differences in the perception of safe-ty risk sources between entrepreneurs from the Czech Republic and Poland were confirmed. More than 25% of SMEs in the Visegrad Group perceive frequent changes of the legal regulation as a legal risk.

Favorable business environment including political, technological, economic, social and other determinants is one of the crucial factors influencing the decision to start a business. The aim of this paper is to define and quantify significant political factors which determine the perception of the quality of business environment (QBE) of small and medium-sized enterprises for starting a new business in Czech Republic and Slovakia. Data of an extensive research conducted at Tomas Bata University in Zlín in 2018 was processed by means of regression analysis. The results show that QBE in both countries is mostly affected by state regulation and state support of business activities, followed by legal environment. The factor supposed to be the third one differed in each country. While QBE is also determined by the quality of education in Czech Republic, this factor is not statistically significant in Slovakia, and the state bureaucracy is. Therefore, governments of both countries should continue facilitating start-ups' development by reducing and eliminating administrative barriers, improving access to finance, and by adapting educational programs involving entrepreneurial education at different educational levels.JEL Classification: H70, L26, M13, M29