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JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

 

 

 

Chart 7* Turnover per an employee (in 2012 in thousand EUR) 
in enterprises in Poland and in selected European countries 

 

 

 
*On the last two graphs (ie. 7 and 8) two countries not belonging 
to the EU are also included, namely: Switzerland and Norway, in 
order to make a thorough comparison of these countries. 

Source: Report on the state of the sector of small and medium-
sized enterprises in Poland in the years 2012-2013, PARP, 
Warsaw 2014, pp. 33-34 
 
The appropriate level of investment is essential for the proper 
development of businesses, so that this indicator is extremely 
important when comparing the Polish economy against the of 
selected European economies. Unfortunately, just as it occured 
with the previous analysis, again, the Poles can not be satisfied 
with the level of investments allocated to fixed assets in 2011 - 
this fact is confirmed by chart 8. 
 
In Poland, investments in fixed assets of the average company is 
only 25 thousand EUR. This result is significantly different from 
those obtained by the more developed countries of Europe. 
There is a gap between the leader of the classification - 
Switzerland - and the Polish economy, as this country got the 
result of more than 275 thousand EUR. The second position 
belongs to Norway, however, it has got the result of over two 
times smaller than the leader (119 thousand EUR). Only third 
place described the country of the EU - Austria (over 107 
thousand EUR). Just behind the podium came in Denmark, 
followed by Belgium, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom. 
The top ten also includes the following countries: Germany, 
Romania and France. While the middle part of the classification 
was reserved for Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, 
Estonia, Latvia, Slovenia and Spain. However, a few countries 
managed to stay ahead in the ranking of Poland, the former is 
Croatia - 29 thousand EUR, Cyprus - 28 thousand EUR, 
Lithuania - 25 thousand EUR or even Italy also 25 thousand 
EUR. Poland in terms of size of fixed assets for 1 company takes 
21st place of presented EU countries, which is certainly not  
a satisfactory result. Poland in this ranking stays ahead only of 
countries such as Bulgaria (23 thousand EUR), Czech Republic 
(22 thousand EUR), Slovakia (21 thousand EUR), Hungary (20 
thousand EUR) and Portugal (18 thousand EUR). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chart 8 Investments in fixed assets for one company 

 

(in thousand EUR) in Poland and selected European countries 
in 2011 
 

 

Source: Report on the state of the sector of small and medium-
sized enterprises in Poland in the years 2012-2013, PARP, 
Warsaw 2014, p. 40 
 
Summary 
 
At the present time, no one denies the role of SME sector in 
economic development. Undoubtedly, small and medium-sized 
enterprises are seen, throughout the whole European Union, as 
the driving force of the economy, both of individual countries as 
well as the Union as a whole. However, it should be noted, that 
the importance of the examined sector in the economy of the EU 
countries is varied and thus depends on the level of socio-
economic development of the country. 
 
Comparing Poland to other EU countries, it must be concluded 
that it is doing on average, and in some rates relatively well in 
terms of entrepreneurial activity. In 2011, the Polish enterprises 
sector share in GDP was exactly at the same level as the average 
characterized by the countries of the European Union. However, 
due to the growth potential of the economy it is not a good 
result. 
 
In 2011, Poland in terms of number of enterprises was sixth out 
of 24 EU countries - and got a result of 1,523 entities. However, 
Italy has proven to be the leader of the classification (2.5 times 
more companies than in Poland), while the least well in this 
respect did Estonia where, in the audited year, there were only 
55,000 functioning economic entities. 
Poland did very well also against the number of newly 
established enterprises, as out of 16 EU countries, it won fourth 
place (only France, Italy and Germany were moving ahead of 
Poland). The rate was closed by Bulgarians, Lithuanians and 
Belgians. 
Polish companies won a high sixth place in terms of the number 
of employed in enterprises persons in 2012. However, in this 
indicator undeniable winner was Germany, followed by the 
British, the Italians and the French. The worst in this ranking 
were the following countries: Estonia, Luxembourg and Cyprus. 
 
The Poles are certainly enterprising people, because their rate of 
entrepreneurship in 2013 exceeded the EU average, and 
consequently they won sixth place out of twenty-four European 
economies. Unexpectedly, Romania won in this combination, 
while Denmark came in last. 
 
Poland did much worse in terms of the rate of turnover per an 
employee in 2012, taking one of the last of places. Among the 
countries belonging to the EU Luxembourg did the best, and 
Bulgaria the worst.  
 
Poland, in terms of investments in fixed assets in 2011, also did 
unfavorably against EU competitors - position in third top ten of 

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