Abstract:The main objective of the article is to investigate why entrepreneurs from the Mazovian region are not eager to apply for the EU funds. The authors asked the following research questions: Why are the entrepreneurs reluctant to apply for the EU funds? How (if) has the situation changed comparing the 2007-2013 and the 2014-2020 perspectives? What should be changed from the side of the EU perspective? In the research a qualitative method -direct interview with entrepreneurs -was used. 171 entrepreneurs were interviewed. Purposive sampling was used. The authors chose the companies, which fulfilled the following conditions: they were interested in applying for the EU funds; they had experience in getting support from the European Union; they perceive themselves as "innovative". All enterprises were from the Mazovian region in Poland. It was stated that a large number of companies wants to apply for the EU funds, but they cannot do it due to many factors such as the necessity to include own funds; no interest to participate in any project; the willingness to purchase the apparatus or appliance or too high bureaucracy. The best way to make the EU funds available for the companies is to meet their problems and expectations first. It should be done in the form of consultations between the government and business world. Such consultations would bring ideas, which topics should be included into the proposed programmes. The originality of this work lies in studying factors, which make the entrepreneurs from the Mazovian region impossible to apply for the EU funds. It is very important to recognise them as the 2014-2020 perspective offers a huge amount of money, which could be well spent by the entrepreneurs, if they managed with hampering factors.

The objective of the article is to present internal managerial business succession model, which can be applied in family companies in a situation when a typical family succession (by children or other family members) is not possible or not desirable. Research Design & Methods: The authorial model has been developed in the ENTERtransfer project (INTERREG Central Europe programme) and extended during the pilot actions with the entrepreneurs and the representatives of the local and regional authorities in the Mazovian region in Poland between October and November 2018. Findings: Based on the feedback from the target groups, the internal managerial business succession model has been extended and improved. However, it turned out that depending on the size of the company, the entrepreneurs indicated two basic succession models. SMEs strongly preferred a typical family succession (by family members), whereas the representatives of big companies opted for the internal managerial business succession model, which is related to the involvement of an external person into the company management. Contribution & Value Added: Although the model has been developed in the international project, it is directed mainly to the companies from the Mazovian region in Poland as the project objective is to develop the outputs only for the regional level. The core input into the development of the model was the target group of the ENTERtransfer project: the entrepreneurs and the representatives of different types of authorities. That means that the model has not been developed only by the authors based on the literature, but mainly with the practical support of interested bodies in this area. Article type: research paper