The research carried out by the Polish Economic Institute (PIE) shows that Polish entrepreneurs overstate their self-esteem of propensity to take risks. While risk aversion is declared by 36% of representatives of large companies and 44% of owners of micro-enterprises, in fact, 70% and 82%, respectively, will choose a safer option and less risky decision.
Interestingly, experience in running a business not only does not have a positive effect on the tendency to make risky decisions but even prompts avoiding it, which was admitted by as many as 41% of respondents.
According to the report PIE “The willingness to take risks as a factor in the development of Polish enterprises”, low propensity to take risks is related to the low level of social and human capital and is manifested in particular in the perception of the process of hiring employees as very risky, reluctance to cooperate in business with external partners, scepticism towards using external financing and distance towards public institutions.
“Our research confirms that Polish companies are struggling with problems
in risk management, which may constitute a barrier to their development. Relatively many, i.e. about 1/3 of representatives of micro, medium and large companies and 1/4 of representatives of small companies assess the process of hiring employees as one of the riskiest elements in their activities”, says Agnieszka Wincewicz-Price, head of the behavioural economics team at the Polish Institute Economical.
In her opinion, companies are reluctant to use external sources of financing for their activities, as much as 88% of respondents indicated that they are investing on the basis of their own funds.
“We also see scepticism towards cooperating with other enterprises in the investment process – 55% of managers of micro-enterprises, 59% of medium-sized representatives and as much as 68% of large companies state that investments carried out jointly with another company are riskier than an independent project”, adds Agnieszka Wincewicz-Price.
Adrian Andrzejewski order