CAPITAL STRUCTURE AND COMPETITIVENESS OF POLISH SMES ON THE COMMON MARKET

The paper studies the relationship between the financial system's level of development and the financial management competencies of domestic small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on the one hand, and their competitiveness in the first period after the accession of Poland to the European Union on the other. The objective is to determine the role of Polish financial system and financial competencies of domestic SMEs as factors influencing competitiveness of such firms. Theoretically, such influence should take the form of improving - or impairing - SMEs' developmental capabilities by increasing - or limiting - availability and use of external finance. The empirical evidence points to the maturity of the financial management competencies (rationality of financial structure decisions) of studied SMEs and to the relative ease of obtaining external financing. Both the condition of the financial system and the studied financial competencies appear to play a positive role in improving firms' competitiveness.