Risk of Enterprises’ Innovative Activity in the context of Their Financial Performance – Evidence from Poland

In the literature term „innovativeness” in the context of enterprises is identified with a key success factor that determines the competitive advantage of enterprises on the market. At the same time, however, for various reasons, this activity involves considerable risk, which is also often perceived as one of its basic barriers. Therefore, a question arises about the profitability of the effort related to undertaking innovative activity as compared to a business with more traditional characteristics. Therefore, the main goal of the article was to examine the financial dimension of the expected value – risk relationship for companies with innovative characteristics compared to entities basing their basic activity on current solutions. The study was conducted in relation to selected companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, and its time scope covered the period from 2010 to 2019. Obtained results show that, although each innovative activity of enterprises is actually accompanied by a higher risk of negative changes in financial values, at the same time the conversion of this risk into the unit of expected value justifies its taking in many cases.