Abstract:
The very topic raises a challenging question: that is, of the role and significance, if not the “survival,” of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and related structures amid forces, which – particularly in the sphere of industry – tend to favor the “big” over the “small” at first sight. At the same time, this points to underlying aspects and challenges of broader socioeconomic and structural dimensions with a concomitant need to formulate appropriate, more differentiated, and specifically designed business policies. Today, such challenges and related problems are seen as intertwined and multipronged, given (i) the growing international (not least as a strategic ingredient of development) perception of the role and exposure of SMEs in terms of their sector-related structural significance nationally, regionally, and globally; (ii) a closer-to-the-skin view of developments related to ongoing restructuring in the European business environment, which, in the context of SMEs, is in many ways regionally unique; and (iii) the overriding socioeconomic and systems-related aspects of a more comprehensive SME-specific policy formulation
