The relationship between business environment and innovativeness of SMEs in the Czech Republic and Slovakia

Abstract

Innovation plays an important role in the business environment and can be a key competitive advantage for an enterprise. Several factors influence innovation activities of SMEs, including the economic environment, the legislative environment, technological factors and social factors. The aim of the article is to evaluate and compare the influence of individual factors on the innovation and further development of micro and SME enterprises in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The article deals with the partial results of the empirical questionnaire survey which was conducted in 2018 at the Tomas Bata University in Zlin in the Czech Republic. The survey addressed the owners of micro and SME enterprises and asked about the perception of the quality of the business environment. This article deals with the part of survey focused on innovativeness of SMEs. The research works with 329 valid answers from respondents from the Czech Republic and 312 respondents from Slovakia. Research focused on small and medium-sized enterprises, as they are a major catalyst for the economic growth of individual economies. Within the European Union, 98% of the business sector represents and covers two thirds of the employment contracts in the private sector. Three research questions were set to analyze the difference in the perception of business environment and its impact on SMEs in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia. In the process of solving the formulated research questions, the following statistical tools such as tables, descriptive characteristics (mean, variance, standard, and deviation), and Person coefficient of contingency were used. Research results can be used by the government to address key issues related to SME support. Finally, the results indicate that the perception of macroeconomic environment and its impact on innovativeness of SMEs is different in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia. Entrepreneurs in the Czech Republic are more skeptical about a support of macroeconomic environment in the innovation area. Slovak entrepreneurs are also more confident that current banks' interest rates help innovativeness in SMEs (only 34% of Czech entrepreneurs agree with this statement). The article concludes with a discussion of the possible causes of these differences. © 2018 Proceedings of the European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, ECIE. All rights reserved.