KEY DETERMINANTS OF THE QUALITY OF BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT OF SMES IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

The business environment is determined by various obstacles the business owners have to deal with in the course of their work. This article aims to create a model of the quality of business environment, define the key determinants of this model, and quantify the correlations among the individual determinants in the area of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Czech Republic. Partial results of a survey carried out at the Tomas Bata University in Zlin in 2015 were used for the analysis. On the basis of previous surveys, four determinants were set that influence the quality of business environment (State, Public perception, Financial markets and banks, Business risks). From these four areas, questions were selected and asked to business owners in the Czech Republic in the abovementioned survey. Links were identified among selected questions asked to the owners. These links led to adjusting the business environment to four determinants: State and public perception, Banks and their approach to business, Knowledge of rules and principles, and financial risks and their increase in post-crisis time. Subsequently, correlations were identified among these determinants. It was ascertained that the knowledge of the conditions of the financial system leads to a positive perception of the banks' approach in terms of external finance. Moreover, a positive influence of the banking sector on how the business owners perceive financial risks was identified. Another important result of the survey is the fact that business owners who have the necessary knowledge of the financial market perceive financial risks as less intense compared to those lacking such knowledge of the financial market.