Abstract:

Small and medium-sized enterprises are of interest to many entities, including scientists and public authorities, such as the European Union, which has many programs to support this group of enterprises. Therefore, it seems interesting to know what decisions SMEs make in the context of cooperation with the institutional environment and what other activities they take to increase their competitiveness. The article first presents the structure and essence of the Polish SMEs sector. Then, the results of research on the specificity of the functioning of Polish SME were presented. Among others, the differences between enterprises of various sizes are presented, and the most important of them include the type of activity, the use of external support and activities supporting competitiveness. The research results also indicate that the SMEs sector should not be treated in a uniform manner, and the activities undertaken by public authorities and business environment institutions should be directed at the specificity of enterprises of various sizes.