Analysis and Comparison of Economic and Financial Risk Sources in SMEs of the Visegrad Group and Serbia

Judit Oláh,Sándor Kovács,Zoltán Lakner,Zuzana Virglerova,Maria Kovacova,József Popp

doi:10.3390/su11071853

Abstract

Risk management is one of the most important internal process, not only in large companies but also in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To identify the source of risk can be crucial in all companies. The primary objective of this study is to analyze and compare the economic and financial risk sources in SMEs of the V4 (Visegrad Group: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) and Serbia, in the context of the business environment of the countries analyzed. To achieve this goal, a questionnaire-based survey was carried out involving 2110 SMEs from Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Serbia. The questionnaire included questions about the importance of risks and the concept of risk management in the company. To test the formulated hypotheses, the following statistical tools were used: contingency tables, a Z-value, and a general non-hierarchical log-linear model with three categorical variables and a continuous covariate. Finally, the differences among V4 countries and Serbia were identified. Serbia is more vulnerable to the financial risk sources studied than the V4 countries. The result of the research shows that insufficient profit is more hazardous compared to the other risk sources and all countries are more vulnerable in in this issue. The article concludes with a discussion and a comparison with previous international researches.

Highlights

The European Commission has declared that the European economy’s “source of lifeblood” is derived from the 23 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which make up more than 98% of the business community
The results show that managing credit risk for SMEs must be carried out with models and procedures clearly focused on the SME segment [4]
A former article dealt with only the market risk sources and the present study focuses on the economic and financial risk sources [25]

Summary

Introduction

The European Commission has declared that the European economy’s “source of lifeblood” is derived from the 23 million SMEs which make up more than 98% of the business community These businesses provide two-thirds of private sector employment, and have been responsible for approximately 80% of new workplaces created over the last five years [1]. To a greater degree than larger organizations, SMEs need to adopt a risk management strategy and methodology, given the fact that they lack the resources to react quickly to internal and external threats. This can cause potentially enormous losses which can even threaten their survival [14]

Objectives

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Conclusion