Paths to Justice of Small and Medium Enterprises in Poland

Paper presents the initial results of an extensive empirical study of small and medium enterprises' (SMEs) access to justice, conducted in Poland in 2017. Quantitative and qualitative methods have been used to obtain information on prevalence of justiciable problems in SMEs, actions they take on their paths to justice, owners' and managers' understanding of the process and a number of explanatory factors. Statistical model of incidence of types of problems and reactions to them is presented, along with in-depth analysis of the decision-making processes in SMEs. In the theoretical dimension, paper attempts to combine conceptual tools used in paths to justice studies with more abstract notions from systems theory. In this vein, decisions to use law (or to abstain from using it) in SMEs are conceptualised as risk management under conditions of legal and economic uncertainty.