The attitudes of entrepreneurs of the small and medium-sized enterprises sector in Poland to key business risks

Research background: The risk management process is a key element in running a business. Moreover, it is basically one of the basic and most important internal processes in any company, regardless of its size. However, due to the extremely important role played by small and medium-sized enterprises in the economy, the problem of proper management of endogenous and exogenous risks becomes particularly important. Purpose of the article: The article aims to show the importance of risk management in the operations of modern enterprises in the SMEs sector and the attitudes of entrepreneurs towards key business risks. Methods: The research was based on data on 332 enterprises from the SMEs sector operating in Poland. The data was collected using the CSAQ method in the period from 12 of November 2019 to 9 of March 2020. The distribution of risk assessment in the studies was analysed using Tau Kendall statistics, while the risk management index was created by examining the attitudes of entrepreneurs towards individual risk factors. Findings & Value added: The results of the survey showed that three-quarters of enterprises did not manage risk in a formalized way and that decision-makers in enterprises often paid too little attention to the issues related to managing different types of risk. The article should, therefore, draw the attention of managers to the need to build appropriate procedures to enable effective risk management that creates opportunities for the safe operation of the enterprise. The added value of the work is a detailed analysis of the management of individual types of endogenous and exogenous risks, as well as an indication of what features of enterprises affect the effectiveness of actions taken in the field of controlling these risks. Research is valuable because of the small amount of studies that links managers' approaches to risk management with actual risk management effectiveness.