BARRIERS TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF POLISH SME IN THE LIGHT OF THE RESEARCH RESULTS ON INNOVATIVENESS OF THE ECONOMY AND COMPANIES

Innovations and the ability to create and introduce them are recognized in the modern economy as the driving forces of development in micro-, mezzo-and macro scale. This means that the innovative abilities of small and medium-sized companies in Poland determine their development, as well as competitiveness. The hitherto studies on the innovativeness of Polish economy and its SMEs indicate that for many years, only a small part of them use innovation as a measure for development. This is the result of many barriers present in both Polish economy and within these companies. They are diverse in nature. External companies' innovativeness limits include economic, social, political, legal, cultural, technological, capital and market aspects. The internal determinants of this phenomenon include available resources, effective systems of communication, innovation-oriented organizational culture and leadership, the quality of human capital and creativity, as well as the structural determinants and sociological and psychological factors. All these areas may make up for the company development barriers or opportunities. The aim of the article is to present barriers to the SMEs development in Poland in the context of their innovativeness barriers. Using data from the reports of the European Commission, Innovation Union Scoreboard, Community Innovation Survey and the papers by Polish Agency of Entrepreneurship Development and the Main Statistical Office, the author has identified the cause of low innovativeness of Polish SMEs. This diagnosis makes easier taking by the state and enterprises appropriate measures to reduce those barriers.