The Models of Cooperation Between Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises as an Expression of the Changes in Their Behaviour Triggered by the Crisis

Abstract

This chapter aims to analyze the changes taking place in the behaviour of the businesses operating in the SME sector with regard to the way they establish cooperation in the face of a crisis and to the way this cooperation functions. The purpose is to present the condition of small and medium-sized enterprises in the years 2009–2014 as well as the indications of their adaptation to the market conditions in the situation of the crisis in Poland that concerned their cooperation with other entities on the market. Therefore, the thesis to be supported here states that: small and medium enterprises display flexibility in their operations and in establishing cooperation by using its modern forms in order to optimise financial outcomes and achieve economic and market results through overcoming the external and internal barriers, which results in their special importance in the process of sustaining social and economic growth in the conditions of considerable crisis.The analysis was based on empirical research presenting the opinions of managers and business owners concerning the forms of cooperation and the behaviours of their enterprises with regard to the establishment and functioning of cooperation in the companies from the SME sector.