This paper describes a new cross-country database on the importance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This database is unique in that it presents consistent and comparable information on the contribution of the SME sector to total employment and GDP across different countries. The dataset improves on existing publicly available datasets on several grounds. First, it extends coverage to a broader set of developing and industrial economies. Second, it provides information on the contribution of the SME sector using a uniform definition of SMEs across different countries, allowing for consistent cross-country comparisons. Third, while we follow the traditional definition of the SME sector as being part of the formal sector, the new database also includes the size of the SME sector relative to the informal sector. This paper describes the sources and the construction of the different indicators, presents descriptive statistics, and explores correlations with other socioeconomic variables. This paper--a product of Finance, Development Research Group--is part of a larger effort in the group to study SME-related issues.

This paper describes a new cross-country database on the importance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This database is unique in that it presents consistent and comparable information on the contribution of the SME sector to total employment and GDP across different countries. The dataset improves on existing publicly available datasets on several grounds. First, it extends coverage to a broader set of developing and industrial economies. Second, it provides information on the contribution of the SME sector using a uniform definition of SMEs across different countries, allowing for consistent cross-country comparisons. Third, while we follow the traditional definition of the SME sector as being part of the formal sector, the new database also includes the size of the SME sector relative to the informal sector. This paper describes the sources and the construction of the different indicators, presents descriptive statistics, and explores correlations with other socioeconomic variables.This paper - a product of Finance, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to study SME-related issues.

"This book provides a comprehensive collection of research on current technological developments and organizational perspectives on the scale of small and medium enterprises"--Provided by publisher.

This book provides an international perspective on small business, and includes many useful pedagogical features such as questions for discussion, international case studies and empirical research.

The field of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) digitalization is becoming more mature and stands to significantly contribute to the full development of the agenda of Industry 4.0. Although national digitalization programs have their own goals, the common focus is on the role of SMEs in global value chains. Since SMEs are known to have challenges around Industry 4.0 implementation, this book integrates experiences from 14 countries worldwide. Industry 4.0 in SMEs across the Globe: Drivers, Barriers, and Opportunities provides an in-depth overview of Industry 4.0 in SMEs, covering various national, historical, and geographical settings in nine European countries: Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Serbia, and the UK, complemented by five other countries from around the world: Brazil, China, India, Iran, and the U.S. Each chapter describes the national digitalization program, along with barriers, drivers, and opportunities to implement Industry 4.0 in local SMEs. It subsumes the findings across these countries to identify common themes and clusters of drivers, barriers, and opportunities. The book concludes that there are common approaches of SMEs across the world to adopt Industry 4.0, which are to be understood to increase industrial competitiveness globally. This book is a great resource for digitalization leaders and laggards, business consultants and researchers, as well as Ph.D. and master’s students from industrial engineering and manufacturing backgrounds. Policy makers can also use the contents to better understand the commonalities and differences of national digitalization programs and further support SMEs in their digitalization process.

This insightful book shows how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from some of the traditionally less dynamic peripheral economies of the old EU namely Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain have responded to the twin challenges of globalisation and industrial restructuring. Through a series of unique case studies the contributing authors discuss how these economies, and in particular the SME sector, can be transformed. The book begins by examining the key drivers of the globally competitive SME sector in the EU, before moving on to explore the relationship between multinational enterprises (MNEs), SMEs and industrial development. The authors investigate important policy implications and provide lessons for SME development and growth. With empirical and theoretical contributions on SMEs in both the manufacturing and the services sectors, this essential book will be invaluable for researchers and policymakers in small business economics and management. Postgraduate students of entrepreneurship, business economics, industrial economics and European studies will appreciate this unique set of insights.

To maintain a competitive edge against other businesses, companies must ensure the most effective strategies and procedures are in place. This is particularly critical in smaller business environments with fewer resources. Strategic Optimization of Medium-Sized Enterprises in the Global Market is a critical scholarly resource that highlights the optimization of management functions, such as working capital and marketing, and how to implement sustainable business management practices in the global world market. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as social entrepreneurship, marketing optimization, and globalization, this book is geared towards business managers, medium-sized enterprises, policy makers, business professionals, and upper-level students seeking current research on the performances of medium-sized enterprises across the world and their broader supply chain.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a critical role in rejuvenating and sustaining the modern economy, generating substantial employment and serving as important innovation engines for the global economy. Global Perspectives on Small and Medium Enterprises and Strategic Information Systems: International Approaches aims to spread research conducted on SMEs internationally and place it at the disposal of academics, practitioners, consultants, the vendor community, and policymakers. The goal of this book is to highlight the challenges faced by SMEs and how they are coping with the adverse environment through skillful use of IT and technologies such as Web 2.0, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), e-commerce, open source software, Business Process Digitization (BPD), and other emerging technologies.

Products and services created by small and medium sized organizations account for the vast majority of economic activity across the globe. These organizations will prove vitally important to the emerging and developing economies that will shape future decades. Small Business Management in Cross-Cultural Environments is one of very few books to take the cross-cultural context as an opportunity to analyse and discuss the key concepts of small firm management in different parts of the world. This textbook covers important topics, such as: the global economic development process entrepreneurship the role of government SME growth and collaborations in a global context. By explaining how culture shapes and conditions the reality of small businesses and how organizational theories and models fail as management tools, this book fills a significant gap. Supplemented by a compendium of compelling case studies, drawn from across the world, and based upon 25 years of international research by the author, Small Business Management in Cross-Cultural Environments is a useful guide for students and practitioners of SME and International Management

Economic and social progress requires a diverse ecosystem of firms that play complementary roles. Making It Big: Why Developing Countries Need More Large Firms constitutes one of the most up-to-date assessments of how large firms are created in low- and middle-income countries and their role in development. It argues that large firms advance a range of development objectives in ways that other firms do not: large firms are more likely to innovate, export, and offer training and are more likely to adopt international standards of quality, among other contributions. Their particularities are closely associated with productivity advantages and translate into improved outcomes not only for their owners but also for their workers and for smaller enterprises in their value chains. The challenge for economic development, however, is that production does not reach economic scale in low- and middle-income countries. Why are large firms scarcer in developing countries? Drawing on a rare set of data from public and private sources, as well as proprietary data from the International Finance Corporation and case studies, this book shows that large firms are often born large—or with the attributes of largeness. In other words, what is distinct about them is often in place from day one of their operations. To fill the “missing top†? of the firm-size distribution with additional large firms, governments should support the creation of such firms by opening markets to greater competition. In low-income countries, this objective can be achieved through simple policy reorientation, such as breaking oligopolies, removing unnecessary restrictions to international trade and investment, and establishing strong rules to prevent the abuse of market power. Governments should also strive to ensure that private actors have the skills, technology, intelligence, infrastructure, and finance they need to create large ventures. Additionally, they should actively work to spread the benefits from production at scale across the largest possible number of market participants. This book seeks to bring frontier thinking and evidence on the role and origins of large firms to a wide range of readers, including academics, development practitioners and policy makers.