Evaluation of state aid for entrepreneurs and their access to financial resources: Students' attitudes in Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia

Abstract

The article's aim is to find out whether student's nationality influences the assessment of access to financial resources, state support for entrepreneurship, and students' inclination to start a business after graduating from college. The questionnaire was completed by 1352 students: 409 from 14 CR universities; 375 from 3 PL universities and 568 from 8 universities in SR. To meet the goal of the article, mathematical statistics such as chi-squared test, pivot tables, z-score, and descriptive statistics were used. One of the most significant findings is that there were significant differences between the students of different nationalities when assessing access to financial resources. The most significant interest in after graduation entrepreneurship was seen in students from Poland (38.1%), then from Slovakia (35.7%), and the least interest was demonstrated by the students from Czech Republic (26.9%). Students from Czech Republic (25.9%) and Slovak Republic (17.4%) had significantly different views on the quality of legal conditions for entrepreneurship in their countries. Students from Czech Republic evaluated access to external resources and payment discipline as being the worst (27.4%), as compared to the ratings by the students from Slovakia (22.4%) and Poland (19.5%). In addition to state support and access to financial resources, other essential factors are: the social environment in the country (family, society, politicians, the media); macroeconomic environment (statistical indicators - GDP, employment, inflation); quality of the business environment (administrative burden on entrepreneurs, improving the situation of business entities compared to the situation in the business environment 5 years ago); quality of higher education (university education system, acquired knowledge and their subsequent application), etc.