Der Mittelstand bildet mit nahezu 3,5 Millionen Unternehmen die Basis der deutschen Wirt-schaftsstärke. Unternehmensgründungen sind für die ständige Erneuerung der mittelständi-schen Unternehmenslandschaft unerlässlich; innovative Start-ups bringen wichtige Innovatio-nen auf den Markt, die...

Underlying Greece's public debt crisis is a fundamental economic problem: its lack of international competitiveness. While in the short term the debt crisis must be solved, in the long term the economic perspective of the country will depend on whether it will succeed in developing competitive...

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) show structural shortcomings with regard to the development of international markets. Thus, it is the explicit goal of foreign trade promotion to foster the degree of internationalisation of SMEs. Yet, empirical research whether foreign trade promotion...

This paper reviews literature as well as explores analytical findings on the theory of national competitive advantage to define the trend and pattern of international trade from an emerging market perspective. For this purpose, RMG sector of Bangladesh is taken as an example industry, as its...

Die vorliegende Studie setzt sich konzeptionell mit dem gesellschaftlichen Beitrag des Mittelstands auseinander. Ziel ist es, die gesellschaftliche Rolle des Mittelstands über betrieblich messbare Effekte (CSR, CC) hinaus zu betrachten und eine Grundlage für nachfolgende empirische...

We use a new database, the National Establishment Time Series (NETS), to revisit the debate about the role of small businesses in job creation. Birch (e.g., 1987) argued that small firms are the most important source of job creation in the U.S. economy. But Davis et al. (1996a) argued that this...

Very little is known about the effectiveness of SME policies, and a careful look at the structure, mechanisms and incentives provided by these policies suggest caution in their implementation and, most importantly, the need to carefully and closely monitor their results. This paper relies on the...

We use a comprehensive database concerning the application and allocation of business subsidies in Finland merged with the firm-level data comprising about 330 000 firms from the year 2004 to 2008. We find strong continuities in participation both within and between the different public support...

The study investigates, by using econometric evaluation methods, how the usage of Finpro's (a public agency promoting internationalization of business) services impacts on the internationalization and performance of small and medium-sized firms in Finland. We measure internationalization and...