Support of Small Innovative Businesses in the Czech Republic

This paper reviews the national system for support of small and medium businesses in the rapidly changing environment of the Czech Republic. The major components of the support are national programmes of assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises, information and consulting services, the PHARE programme and business incubators. It is concluded that incubators can be a cost-effective instrument in the creation of new enterprises; however, most of the facilities claiming to be business incubators do not offer adequate services and business assistance to their clients, but operate only as multi-tenant buildings. Three case examples of business incubators (two successful, one not successful) are presented.