Comparative Study of the Perception of Financial and Credit Risks among Slovak and Czech Entrepreneurs: Impact of Gender, Level of Education and Business Experience on SMEs

Abstract

Financial and credit risk has become a widely discussed topic in relation to the recent financial and economic crisis. The aim of this chapter is to bring statistical evidence about the impact of the selected factors (gender, level of education and business experience) on the perception of financial and credit risks by the entrepreneurs in Slovakia and the Czech Republic and to identify whether the entrepreneurship in these regions is influenced by identical or different factors. The research data were obtained through the surveys carried out in 1579 small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in these countries in 2016. Pearson's chi-square analysis was applied to confirm statistically significant dependencies. Our results show that while the gender and the level of business experience of the entrepreneur could be considered as factors with the substantial impact on the perception of financial risk in both countries, the level of education (university degree) does not have a significant impact in the researched data sample.