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

Judit Oláh, Sándor Kovács, Zuzana Virglerova, Zoltán Lakner, Maria Kovacova and József Popp
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Judit Oláh: Institute of Applied Informatics and Logistics, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Debrecen, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary
Sándor Kovács: Institute of Sectoral Economics and Methodology, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Debrecen, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary
Zuzana Virglerova: Thomas Bata University, Centre for Applied Economic Research, Faculty of Management and Economics, 760 01 Zlin, Czech Republic
Zoltán Lakner: Szent István University, Faculty of Food Science, 1114 Budapest, Hungary
Maria Kovacova: Department of Economics, Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications University of Zilina, 010 26 Zilina, Slovak Republic
József Popp: Institute of Sectoral Economics and Methodology, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Debrecen, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 7, 1-19

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.

Keywords: entrepreneurs; economic risk; financial risk; SMEs; source of risk (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

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