Transformations  in
Business & Economics

INNOVATION OF POLISH MICRO AND SMALL ENTERPRISES AND TRADE CREDIT
Joanna Duda, Aleksandra Gasior, Irena Alebaite

ABSTRACT. Enterprise innovation is a widely described topic in the literature concerning various aspects. This article focuses on one of such aspects, namely, the financial aspect. The analysis of literature and available statistical data shows that Polish SMEs are not very innovative, mainly due to financial barriers. Therefore, the aim of the present paper is to identify the barriers to innovation of Polish SMEs. The paper also seeks to examine the relationship between the use of trade credit and enterprise innovation. In order to achieve the aim, the analysis was conducted on the basis of articles published in Journal of Banking & Finance, European Journal of Operational Research, and Small Business Economics. The analysis also covers the results of empirical studies published in the reports of the Polish Ministry of Economy, Polish Confederation of Private Employers PKPP "Lewiatan" and the study conducted by the authors on the use of trade credit in Polish SMEs, the results of which are later compared with the results of similar studies conducted in the United States, Spain and Japan. The results presented in this paper show that there is a significant difference between the degree of use of trade credit among Poland and other analysed countries. In the United States, Spain and Japan, trade credit is very popular and represents an alternative form of financing for companies in the SME sector. However, Polish enterprises use a completely different strategy for financing their activities, which is only slightly based on trade credit, thus resulting in a negative impact on innovation of those enterprises .

KEYWORDS:  innovation, barriers to innovation, trade credit, SME, Poland.

JEL classification:  M03; G00.