Piza, C;
Cravo, TA;
Taylor, L;
Gonzalez, L;
Musse, I;
Furtado, I;
Sierra, AC;
(2016)
The Impact of Business Support Services for Small and Medium Enterprises on Firm Performance in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review.
[Review].
Campbell Systematic Reviews
, 12
(1)
pp. 1-167.
10.4073/csr.2016.1.
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Abstract
This Campbell systematic review assesses the effects of business support services in low‐ and middle‐income countries on firm performance and economic development. The review summarizes findings from 40 studies. Included studies examine interventions targeted at SMEs (two to 250 employees) involving tax simplification, exports and access to external markets; support for innovation policies; support to local production systems; training and technical assistance, and SME financing and credit guarantee programmes. Findings from 40 studies are summarised in the review. These studies present evidence from 18 low‐ and middle‐income countries, with 26 studies analysing programmes in Latin America, six from Asia and five from Africa. On average, business support to SMEs improves their performance, their ability to create jobs, their labour productivity and their ability to invest. The effects on innovation are unclear. Matching grants, technical assistance and tax simplification programmes improve firms' performance and job creation; with technical assistance also improving labour productivity. Export promotion and innovation programmes positively affect exports and innovation, but there is no evidence that they improve performance or job creation. However, the effects of the programmes studied are not very large. Most studies do not include the required data to assess if the programmes are cost effective.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Impact of Business Support Services for Small and Medium Enterprises on Firm Performance in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.4073/csr.2016.1 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.4073/csr.2016.1 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > UCL Institute for Global Prosperity |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10079081 |
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