Business insurances as an element of sustainable development of small and medium enterprises in Poland

¹ Gdynia Maritime University, Faculty of Entrepreneurship and Quality Science, 81-87 Morska St., 81-225 Gdynia, Poland
² University of Gdańsk, Faculty of Economics, 119/121 Armii Krajowej St., 81-824 Sopot, Poland
³ Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Building Services, Hydro and Environmental Engineering, 20 Nowowiejska St., 00-653 Warsaw, Poland

^* Corresponding author: oskar.czechowski@ibs24.eu

Abstract

The SME sector in Poland constitutes over 90% of all business entities. It is a broad market for insurance products. The choice of the insurer by these entrepreneurs is conditioned by several factors, including a beneficial image of the insurer, security in terms of its solvency, an attractive amount of the insurance premium or a wide insurance offer. The data comes from the study "SME finance 2015 - Insurance services market". Two research hypotheses were made for the purposes of the analysis. The first one assumes that the analysed factors are important when choosing the insurer by the SMEs. The second one indicates the selection of an adequate level of protection up to the level of risk occurrence. The results of the research show that PZU SA is the main insurer in Poland. At the same time, it is the most willingly selected SME among enterprises. In addition, two groups of clients were identified. The first one is characterised by the use of adequate protection measures in relation to the degree of risk occurrence. The other group applied relatively high or low degree of protection against small or high risk.