Uwarunkowania prowadzenia i wyboru formy prawnej działalności gospodarczej w Polsce
Chousing the legal form of economic activity in Poland: key determinants

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the problem of the determinants of the choice of the legal form of conducting economic activity in Poland. The aim of the study was to identify the most important determinants of choosing the form of conducting economic activity in Poland, as well as to assess the popularity of these forms against the background of the current economic and legal situation. The article uses a review of the literature on the subject, which allowed for the identification of potential conditions for the choice of the legal form of conducting an economic activity, and for the characterization of individual forms. The popularity of individual legal forms was also analysed in terms of quantity and their structure in Poland. The research period covered the years 2011–2021. The results of the analysis indicated that the most important criteria for selecting the legal form of economic activity are concentrated in four areas: finance and taxes, human resources, ownership type and enterprise management mechanisms. From 2011–2021, the most popular form of conducting an economic activity was a sole proprietorship run by natural persons. In 2011, there were 2,871.46 thousand, while in 2021 there were already 3,446.58 thousand. It is worth noting that in the years 2011–2017, the share of natural persons undertaking business activity in national economy entities in the private sector in Poland was systematically decreasing, but in 2021 it reached the maximum level of 85.30%. The second group of economic entities in terms of popularity of the form were commercial companies, and the most common among them – was capital companies, whose share in total commercial companies fluctuated within the range of 84–86% during the entire research period. In this group of companies, there was the largest number of limited liability companies. Their share in capital companies during the entire research period increased from 96% to almost 98% in 2021, when their number was the highest and amounted to 499.98 thousand. The share of partnerships in commercial companies fluctuated between 14% and 16% during the entire research period. Among partnerships, the most popular partnerships were general partnerships and limited partnerships, while partnerships and limited joint-stock partnerships were much less important. It should be noted that despite quantitative changes, the shares of individual forms of business activity in total entities did not change significantly.

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