The Impact of Business Support Services for Small and Medium Enterprises on Firm Performance in Low- and Middle-Income Countries : A Meta-Analysis

Cravo, Tulio A. ; Piza, Caio

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: EMPLOYMENT;    EQUIPMENT;    CORPORATION;    SEARCH;    SME POLICIES;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7664
RP-ID  :  WPS7664

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Interventions designed to support smalland medium enterprises are popular among policy makers,given the role small and medium enterprises play in jobcreation around the world. Business support interventions inlow- and middle-income countries are often based on theassumption that market failures and institutionalconstraints impede the growth of small and mediumenterprises. Significant resources from governments andinternational organizations are directed to small and mediumenterprises to maximize their socioeconomic impact.Business-support interventions for small and mediumenterprises in low- and middle-income countries most oftenrelate to formalization and business environments, exports,value chains and clusters, training and technicalassistance, and access to credit and innovation. Very littleis known about the impact of such interventions despite theabundance of resources directed to small and mediumenterprise business-support services. This papersystematically reviews and summarizes 40 rigorousevaluations of small and medium enterprise support servicesin low- and middle-income countries, and presents evidenceto help inform policy debates. The study found indicativeevidence that overall business-support interventions helpimprove firm performance and create jobs. However, little isstill known about which interventions work best for smalland medium enterprises and why. More rigorous impactevaluations are needed to fill the large knowledge gap inthe field.