Small and medium enterprises

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs ), Belgium and Austria small and medium enterprises (SMEs ), is the collective name for companies that do not exceed the defined limits on number of employees, revenue or total assets. The classification is usually independent of the chosen legal form or ownership structure. Companies that exceed the limits are called large companies.

Internationally, the English name of Small and Medium -sized Enterprises ( SME) is common seltenener also Small and Medium -sized Businesses ( SMB).

  • 4.1 USA
  • 4.2 Europe 4.2.1 Germany
  • 4.2.2 Austria
  • 4.2.3 Poland
  • 4.2.4 Switzerland
  • 5.1 Germany

Pros and Cons

The advantages of the KMB are on several levels. The clear operation size simplifies the management tasks and a most pleasant working atmosphere than for large enterprises. This is i.a. the social bond of employees greater, whose turnover is lower and the training of apprentices intense. The most intense customer loyalty brings business continuity.

A decisive advantage is the often high degree of flexibility, whereby short-term market gaps or edge areas of the market can be better served.

Disadvantage of possible bottlenecks in the production and delivery times can be on large orders. Higher costs may cause the weaker status to large suppliers, to control one here but through strategic suppliers. With relatively higher share of costs to be expected with in-house developments and licenses.

Definitions

European Union

The Commission of the European Union provides the following definition:

It is still necessary for recognition as small and medium enterprises by the EU that the company is independent. Autonomy is defined by the Commission as: the company is neither partner of another company or with another company (less than 25 % shares as a shareholder or share encoder) connected.

Institute for SME Research ( IfM) Bonn

The IfM Bonn draws the following size criteria approach for the definition of small and medium-sized enterprises:

German Commercial Code

The German Commercial Code ( HGB) distinguishes small corporations, medium-sized corporations and large corporations under § 267. Thus, a corporation is defined as "small corporation ", provided it does not exceed at least two of the following features on the closing dates of two consecutive fiscal years:

" Medium corporations " are those which exceed at least two of the three above-mentioned features of the closing dates of two consecutive financial years and not exceed at least two of the following characteristics:

The busy part of their vocational training employees will not be considered.

A corporation is considered a " Large corporation " if it has been exceed at least two of the last three features or if it participates in an organized market through securities issued by her in claim being made or admission to trading on a regulated market is sought.

Two of the three possible criteria must be met.

Employment size classes of Statistics Austria

Statistics Austria is different for ÖNACE 2003/2008 following employment size classes within the KMBS:

It must be noted that employment, and employees are not charged. Be divided KMB, and several large farms in single and multi- workplace operations:

  • With a single-site workplace (UBA )
  • Single-site with several workplaces (UB )
  • Multi-establishment enterprises (U)

Wherein the first mold for the KMB is far predominant.

Managerial importance

Despite the numerical predominance of small and medium-sized enterprises in the overall economy its significance lay in business administration usually behind those of large companies and corporations back, especially in terms of management, marketing, market research and personnel issues. " What in large organizations is going on, seemed more interesting and analytical processes to be more accessible than the little formalized world of small and medium enterprises. " Since the 1980s, economic problems of SMEs find Increasingly, however, scientific interest in the German-speaking world, especially in the founded in 1948 by Alfred Gutersohn researcher talks Rencontres de St. gall, in the Swiss research Institute of Small and Medium Business at the University of St. Gallen ( formerly Swiss Institute of Industrial Economics at the Graduate School of St. Gallen) and the German Institute for small and Medium Enterprises, Berlin. Especially the part of the Study of commerce the instruments of trade marketing of the situation of SMEs has been adjusted in the trade.

Economic Importance

USA

For the U.S., David Birch was in 1979 in a provocative publication first time that the number of jobs created by small and medium-sized enterprises, the jobs which surpassed in large enterprises newly created by far.

Europe

SMEs are the socially and economically dominant enterprise size in the European Union ( EU). Set this to about 99 % of all enterprises and provide about 65 million people a job. At European level, they are represented among others by associations such as the UEAPME ( Union Européenne de l' Artisanat et des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises ) and the CEA -PME.

SMEs are one of the critical nuclei for innovation. Because of this situation and often limited access to fresh capital SMEs are particularly encouraged by the state and the EU. The supply of capital is one of the key obstacles to the development of SMEs. The rules of Basel II put additional pressure on the SMEs, especially in the direction of an increase in its equity.

Germany

The small and medium enterprises include in the Federal Republic of Germany

  • Approximately 99.7% of all VAT registered businesses in which almost
  • 65.8 % of all social insurance contributions are made ​​,
  • Approximately 37.5 % of all revenues are generated and
  • Approximately 83.0 % of all apprentices are trained.

Extensive data contained by the Institute issued for SME Research Bonn Key data on SMEs, which are recalculated annually and published on the website of the Institute.

By way of example, a study in 2000 that nearly 81 percent of all sales of German music and toys industry and 70 percent of the sales of the print, wood, steel and light metal construction industry SMEs are generated.

Austria

The Austrian economy has traditionally small businesses. Of the total 294 099 companies (as of 2007 ) had:

  • 257 221 ( 87.4 %) only 1-9 employees
  • 020 019 (6.8%) 10-19 employees
  • 010 850 (3.7%) 20-49 employees
  • 004 939 (1.7%) 50-249 employees

Thus, 99.6 % of all businesses are small or medium-sized enterprises in Austria. In these two-thirds of the approximately 2.6 million employees worked. They generated 60 % of revenues (total 2007: € 613 million), and 58% of gross value added (total 163 billion € ). In similar Betriebs-/Arbeitnehmerverhältnissen as in Germany so twice in comparison percentage of economic power.

90% of companies (2004 ) consisted of only a single place of work, in this work 50 % of the workforce - in comparison, only 1 % had more than four workplaces, total employment share: 27.1 %. Of the workplaces had 90 % fewer than 20 workers, 70 % less than 5 workers, compared to 0.4 % - absolutely 1.610 - of workplaces with more than 200 employees. This shows that even in the large farms workplaces are themselves structured KMB -like. In the workplaces under 20 but the employee's share was only 35.9 %, while in 0.4% of workplaces was busy over a quarter of all employees > 200. This shows that the entrepreneurial potential and investitive Austria manifests itself in the Small and Medium Enterprises: The growth 1999-2004 in the KMB were depending on the state of 20-30 %, with gains in employment and economic force in the same order of magnitude, while the of large companies throughout Austria decreased by about 30%. The labor market large firms have but a significant portion. The data for the period since 2004 are likely to be comparable.

Poland

In Poland, 99.9 percent of all businesses are small or medium in size. Their share of the gross value added is 70 percent, their share of export volume, however, only 40 per cent.

Switzerland

In Switzerland, the total 373'729 private market activities of all three sectors of the economy were distributed in the Census 2008 are as follows among the various size classes:

  • <10 employees: 89.3 %
  • 10 - 49 employees: 8.8%
  • 50-249 employees: 1.6%
  • > 250 employees: 0.3 %

Labour

Germany

All relevant for SMEs labor regulations are based on the number of employees. The method of determining the number of employees (eg, inclusion and weights of part-time employees ) is not uniform and depends on the law under consideration.

  • Up to and including 10 employees apply for support by the operating physician and the occupational health and safety blanket operating times, which can be taken from the UVV BGV A2.
  • Companies with more than 20 employees must have a health and safety committee form (§ 11 Occupational Safety Act )
  • Enterprises up to 50 employees can participate in the business model rather than a service provided by occupational health and safety, that is, they can take over the security service even after attending several courses. Number and duration of the courses are set out in Appendix 3 BGV A2.
Mittelstand Types of business entity Thermal fluctuations Master production schedule Vendor Employment#Employee CEA-PME Capital (economics) Equity (finance)
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