Policy on Small-and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Countries of the European Community

Abstract

AAD DE KONING AND JACQUELINE Snijders are both employed at the International Research Department of the Research Institute for Small and Medium Business (ELM) in the Netherlands. This paper gives figures concerning the position of small and medium enterprises in the European Community; in addition to an overview of the target groups, the organisation and objectives of SME policy in the different EC member states, a comparison is made between the supportive measures in ten areas -- fiscal policies, regional policies, education and training, business licensing, financing, information and counselling, technology and research and developing, supply and contracting, export policies and employment. At thje same time the differences in SME policy are analysed on the basis of characteristics of countries, such as prosperity level and export volume.

Exploring the disconnect in policy implementation: A case of enterprise policy in England

“…Furthermore, in England, enterprise policy is formulated at the ‘top’ before filtering down to the ‘bottom’ for delivery (Barrett, 2004; Mole, 2002). Government is assumed to have clear enterprise policy objectives, but this is often not the case, especially as the UK has witnessed a development of enterprise policies which have failed to adhere to a clear statement of policy objectives and targets (de Koning and Snijders, 1992; Van Cauwenberge et al., 2013). This is partly due to the response to problems and challenges faced by entrepreneurs and SMEs being largely based on the perceptions of policy-makers regarding what should be in the best interest of the business community rather than involving them in the policy process (Woods and Miles, 2014).…”

An Eclectic Theory of Entrepreneurship: Policies, Institutions and Culture

“…From a regulatory perspective, the government can influence entrepreneurship both directly through support policies or establishment legislation and indirectly through policies not directly aimed at influencing the level of entrepreneurship (De Koning and Snijders, 1992;Storey, 1994 andKPMG/ENSR, 2000 andAudretsch and). …”

Environmental Management in Small and Medium-Sized Companies: An Analysis from the Perspective of the Theory of Planned Behavior

“…Thus, the specialized literature provides numerous criteria to characterize SMEs, such as the number of employees, turnover, total assets, etc. [16] – [20] . To the disadvantages of this lack of consensus, one must add the existing differences among the characteristics of SMEs, depending on the sector in which they operate.…”