Significant determinants of the competitive environment for SMEs in the context of the financial and credit risks

Th e aim of the article is to compare signifi cant determinants of the competitive environment for small and medium-sized enterprises in the context of fi nancial and credit risk in Czech Republic and Slovakia. Th e survey on the quality of business environment was carried out in 2015 through a questionnaire on the sample of 1,141 respondents in Czech Republic. Th e total number of 438 questionnaires was collected during the research in Slovakia. Based on our own model, we quantifi ed the index of perception of fi nancial and credit risk (IFCR) for Czech Republic and for Slovakia. We compared the approach to risk by gender and education of the businessmen and company's age through Pearson statistics at the signifi cance level of 5%. Our research has shown that business environment in both countries is characterized by relatively low level of competitiveness in the researched area. Th e value of the resulted index in Czech and Slovak business environments is less than the median interval value. We also determined that the value of IFCR is signifi cantly higher in Slovakia. Our research indicates there are signifi cant diff erences in the assessment of business environment quality through IFCR in both countries, depending on gender and education of entrepreneurs and depending on company's age. Th at index in Czech Republic is signifi cantly higher in case of women as compared to men and in Slovakia it is the opposite. We have also found that businessmen with lower level of education have higher IFCR in both countries. Older fi rms showed better conditions for doing business in both countries because of their higher value of IFCR in both Czech Republic and Slovakia.