Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of collateral for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the context of Visegrad countries: Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Hungary and Poland. The data set for this paper was obtained from the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS), which was conducted by the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) from 2012-2014. A binary logistic regression model with different specifications was employed to examine the effect of independent variables on the incidence of collateral. The results show that risky borrowers need to pledge collateral and the reduction of asymmetric information can lower the incidence of collateral for SMEs. Moreover, we find that female borrowers are more likely to pledge collateral than male borrowers are. The results also suggest that loans with a longer maturity are more likely to be collateralized than short-term loans. We find evidence that bank-borrower proximity can alleviate the incidence of collateral whereas bank concentration may increase collateral requirements. Policy makers may consider these results to implement policies that can promote bank competition and can lower collateral requirements for female borrowers. The paper contributes to the ongoing debate on the determinants of collateral.

This paper examines whether bank finance is a substitute or complementary to trade credit for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the region of the Visegrad Group-the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and the Slovak Republic. This paper uses the data set provided by the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey that was conducted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank during the period from 2012 to 2014. Using a sample of 1,140 firms, it was discovered that firms having an overdraft facility from banks use more trade credit, and this supports the complementary theory of bank credit and trade credit. Moreover, the results suggest that companies that are younger, innovative, risky, with a concentrated ownership structure and operated by an experienced manager use more trade credit to purchase their material inputs and services. However, the results also show that service-oriented firms use less trade credit than manufacturing firms.

ABSTRACT. The issue of business environment for small and medium-sized enterprises is a very actual area of scientific research. Currently, the great importance is given to research people's personal and knowledge preconditions for conducting business. The aim of this article was to examine the relationship between education of entrepreneurs and several aspects of entrepreneurship in the SME segment. Our own research was conducted in the selected regions of the Czech Republic and Slovakia through a questionnaire survey. A total of 449 owners of small and medium-sized companies have been reached. The sample of respondents was divided into two groups: entrepreneurs with and without a university degree. To reach an above mentioned aim, Pearson statistics for a data count, series of 5000 Monte Carlo replication as well as tools of descriptive statistics have been used. Our results have showed that there are significant differences in the attitudes of these two categories of entrepreneurs in their motives for starting business and the knowledge of the lending criteria of commercial banks. On the other hand, the differences in other fields, such as the evaluation of the commercial banks approach, the change of their companies´ profitability, the ability to manage financial risks and the assessment of the academic knowledge usefulness were not confirmed by our research.

The purpose of this comparative study is to explore the differences in the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) between micro versus small and medium enterprises (SMEs). We have selected three dimensions of EO (proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness and autonomy) for our analysis. We have analyzed the data collected from 1141 respondents during the period of 2015 from 14 regions of the Czech Republic, which consists of 740 micro firms and 401 small and medium firms. Empirical results of our paper show significant differences between micro versus small and medium enterprises in terms of proactiveness and autonomy. However, we can only partially confirm that micro firms are statistically different from the SMEs in terms of competitive aggressiveness.  Thus, our paper enables  better understanding of the EO from the firm size perspective, when they have different levels of resources.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this article is to explore the question of autonomy as an element of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in the segment of small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) in the Czech Republic. In relation to the independence of the researched companies, we have investigated whether the evaluation of an independent position of the companies differs according to three criteria: gender, age of the entrepreneur, and time of the company spent in the market. The researched entrepreneurs were divided into men and women, entrepreneurs "younger" (under the age of 45) and "older" (45+), and into "beginners and advanced" (1-10 years in business) and "experienced" (more than 10 years in business). The results showed that 46 % of the respondents perceive their companies as independent, 65% of them have reasonably autonomous staff in their companies, and 71% support the initiative of their employees in business opportunities. In relation to the criteria examined, we have found out that gender does not play the differencing role in autonomy between men and women. However, entrepreneur´s age and firm´s age do so. 68% of "experienced" companies are statistically more aware of the fact that staff in their company is reasonably autonomous in comparison with the "novice and advanced" companies. Furthermore, "younger" entrepreneurs support the initiative of their employees more (64%) than "older" entrepreneurs.