The Influence of Macroeconomic Factors of the Business Environment on the Development of the Number of SMEs

Abstract

The precondition for the development of any economy is the ex­istence of a sufficient number of promising and developing SMEs. The ba­sic element of successful SME development is the socio-economic business environment, which motivates to develop business. The paper analyses the socio-economic factors of the business environment in the regions of the Slovak Republic in the context of the development of SME business activ­ities. The authors used survey methods to identify and better understand the socio-economic factors that stimulate business development, as well as barriers to the development of SME business activities in the regions of the Slovak Republic. To assess the relationship between the socio-economic level of the regions and the development of business in the regions, the au­thors constructed a composite indicator, which made it possible to compare and monitor the development of selected indicators. The authors used more complex multidimensional statistical methods for the calculation.