The Sme Sector, the Single Market and the Appropriateness of Dgxxiii Policies

Abstract

The European Commission has developed a formal enterprise policy with respect to SMEs. It acknowledges that the SMEs play a vital role in the Community's economy employing two thirds of its workforce and having significant cost advantages in some areas as well as having characteristics of flexibility and innovation. It proposes specific policies to help them. However the UK SME sector is also severely affected by high exit rates and instability. It is also, by all available evidence, unprepared for the single market adopting a wait and see attitude. Despite the attention given to this sector by the Commission and the UK government this paper suggests that a strategic rethink of the SME sector is required with a more active intervention policy being adopted.

Designing BPR support services for small firms

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IntroductionThe role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the European economy is widely recognised. For example, SMEs employ more than 70 per cent of the total workforce (Mulhern, 1994). However, their competitiveness is threatened by two relevant changes in the business environment.

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Getting by With a Little Help From Our Friends: Cultural Influences on Entrepreneurial Orientation and Strategic Alliance Portfolio Diversity in SMEs

“…First, scholars have emphasized the importance of understanding SMEs in alliance research (Bakker & Knoben, 2014;Hoehn-Weiss & Karim, 2014;Schilling, 2009). Second, SMEs are among the main drivers of innovation and are essential to economic activity (Mulhern, 1995). Lastly, considering our research purpose of understanding the impact of firms' entrepreneurial behavior on portfolio diversity, SMEs represent a particularly salient research context since most SMEs have less control over resources than larger firms and therefore experience more pressures from external stimuli (Barnett, 1997).…”