This report was produced by the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE) led by Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, Director. It was prepared under the aegis of the OECD Committee on SMEs and Entrepreneurship (CSMEE) as part of its Programme of Work 2021-22. The report benefited from co-funding by and cooperation with the European Commission (EC).
The project was co-ordinated by Sandrine Kergroach and Alexander C. Lembcke, Heads of Unit in CFE, under the supervision of Rudiger Ahrend, Head of Division, Economic Analysis, Data and Statistics, and Céline Kauffmann, Head of Division, Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Tourism. Nadim Ahmad, Deputy Director (CFE) provided valuable guidance for finalising the report.
Chapter 1 on “Rethinking SME scale up and growth policies” was prepared by Sandrine Kergroach, with input from Lora Pissareva and Juan Felipe Rodrigo. Thanks to Jonathan Potter (CFE) for his valuable feedback.
Chapter 2 on “Financing growth” was designed by Sandrine Kergroach and prepared by Bruno De Menna, with inputs from Oualid Mokhantar, Lora Pissareva and Juan Felipe Rodrigo. Nour El-Ashmawi supported the policy mapping and provided research assistance. Comments for this chapter were provided by Lucia Cusmano, Maria Camila Jimenez Suarez, Miriam Koreen, Marija Kuzmanovic and Marco Marchese (CFE).
Chapter 3 on “Turning data into business” was designed, prepared and coordinated by Lora Pissareva, with inputs from Juan Felipe Rodrigo and Oualid Mokhantar. Yusuf Ashmawi and Corentin Beudaert-Ugolini supported the policy mapping and provided research assistance. Marco Bianchini, Lucia Cusmano and Insung Kwon (CFE) provided feedback, as well as colleagues from the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation (STI): Angela Attrey, Gallia Daor, Christian Reimsbach-Kounatze and Jeremy West.
The OECD Secretariat would like to thank Ludger Odenthal, Markus Hell and Borut Ložar of the EC Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) for their input and support throughout the project. Comments from James Gavigan, Margot Moeslinger and Daniel Nepelski of the EC’s Joint Research Centre are also gratefully acknowledged.
Thanks are also due to Carlo Menon and Lenka Wildnerova for their valuable comments on the full report and at different stages along the research process.
The policy information collected as part of this project will feed into the OECD Data Lake on SMEs and Entrepreneurship, a unique knowledge infrastructure to support future policy analysis. To this end, an online dashboard, produced as part of the analytical work, allows for visualising key findings and a first set of experimental indicators based on the country policy mappings. Thanks to Julien Héritier for the design and development of a data management system and the dashboard, as well as to Courtenay Wheeler (CFE) and Samuel Pinto-Ribeiro (OECD Statistics and Data Directorate – SDD) for sharing experience and advice on data visualisation. The publication process was managed by CFE. François Iglesias designed the cover and Pilar Philip served as coordinator. Heather Mortimer-Charoy provided project and secretariat assistance.