Annex C. Relevant SME-related indicators per dimension

Monitoring and evaluation is key to evidence-based policy making, and the use of relevant indicators is essential for policy makers to measure the effectiveness of policies. This assessment cycle underlined once again the need for WBT economies to expand SME data collection and upgrade their monitoring and evaluation systems for various policy areas. The following indicators (divided by policy dimension), which currently are not systematically collected across the region, should be considered for collection and close monitoring by the respective governments in the region:

Dimension 1 – Entrepreneurial learning and women’s entrepreneurship

• Share of students in formal education engaged in entrepreneurial learning programmes, by level of education (% of total number of students per level of education)

• Share of young people having acquired at least one practical entrepreneurial experience prior to leaving school (% of 15-14 years)

• Number of enterprises with formal co-operation with VET institutions, by enterprise size class.

• Share of women-owned enterprises by size class and sector

• Growth rate of women-owned enterprises

• Newly established enterprises, by gender of owner (% of new employer enterprises by gender of owner, last year available)

• Share of women participants in SME support programmes (% of total number of participants)

Dimension 2 – Bankruptcy and second chance

• Number of bankruptcies, by enterprise size class: micro, small, medium, large

• Number of bankruptcies at the beginning of period (SMEs)

• Number of bankruptcies at the end of period (SMEs)

• Number of newly opened bankruptcies (SMEs)

• Number of closed bankruptcies (SMEs)

• Share of insolvency procedures which result in rehabilitation rather than liquidation of the enterprise

• Share of second chance entrepreneurs (% of all active entrepreneurs)

Dimension 3 – Institutional and regulatory framework for SME policy making

• Employment share of 0-3 year old enterprises by size class

• Enterprise birth and death rate by size class

• Share of less than 1 year old enterprises and 1, 2, 3, etc. year old enterprises by size class

• Examination of SME aspects in RIA (% of RIA for relevant legislation / regulations in which impacts on SMEs are considered)

• Steps in RIA that meet the quality standards established by the government (number or share of RIA, by step of the RIA process)

• Participation of SMEs in PPCs (SMEs as a % of total participants in PPCs for relevant legislation)

Dimension 4 – Operational environment for SMEs

• Number of SMEs using digital government services (number of SME users, by service)

• Share of total SMEs using digital government services (% of total SMEs, by service)

• Share of SMEs using digital government services (% of total SMEs, by service and sector of activity)

• SME rate of satisfaction with digital government services (SME satisfaction rate, by service)

• Completion rate of digital services by SMEs (% of commenced digital services completed, by service)

• Number of days required and costs connected to completing the overall company registration process, including obtaining compulsory licences for standard business activities (number and % of GNI per capita)

Dimension 5a

• Share of SMEs benefitting from publicly (co-)funded business support services (BSSs) (expressed as a % of the total number of SMEs)

• The number of locally available specialised training services disaggregated by category

• BSSs beneficiaries’ performance after using publicly (co-)funded services measured by turnover growth, SMEs’ GDP contribution and annual tax revenue

• Amount of resources earmarked for publicly (co-)funded BSSs in local currency

• Beneficiaries’ satisfaction with BSSs measured by satisfaction surveys

Dimension 5b

• SMEs' share in the total value (or number) of public contracts awarded

• Share of SMEs having taken part in a public tender/public procurement procedure

• Success rate for participation of SMEs in public procurement

• Success rate for participation of large companies in public procurement

• Share of e-procurement platform usage (value of contracts submitted via e-procurement platform / total value of procurement contracts)

• Share of SMEs submitting proposals in a public electronic tender system (e-procurement)

• Average delay in payments from public authorities (in days)

Dimension 6

• Outstanding business loans, SMEs (volumes in national currency)

• Outstanding business loans, total (volumes in national currency)

• New business lending, SMEs (volumes in national currency)

• New business lending, total (volumes in national currency)

• Short-term loans, SMEs (initial maturity < 1 year) (volumes in national currency)

• Long-term loans, SMEs (initial maturity > 1 year) (volumes in national currency)

• Government direct loans to SMEs

• Government guaranteed loans, SMEs (volumes in national currency)

• Interest rate for new business loans, large firms (%)

• Collateral, SMEs (% of SMEs needing collateral to obtain bank lending)

• Non-performing loans, SMEs (% of total SME loans)

• Total annual volume of microfinance loans

• Total annual leasing volume

• Total annual factoring volume

• Venture capital investments, total volume

Dimension 7

Key data for this dimension has been systematically collected in the region

Dimension 8a

• Share of enterprises providing training to their employees, by enterprise size class (% of corresponding firm group)

• Share of SME employees who had training during the last year, by gender (% of female/male employees)

• Participants in state-financed SME training, by gender (% of all attendees)

Dimension 8b

• SMEs introducing product innovations (% of SMEs)

• SMEs introducing business process innovations (% of SMEs)

• Labour productivity in SMEs

• R&D expenditure in the business sector (% of GDP)

• Non-R&D innovation expenditures (% of turnover)

• Sales of new-to-firm innovations (% of turnover)

• Exports of medium and high technology products as a share of total product exports (% of total product export)

• High-growth enterprises

• Tax incentives for business R&D expenditures (% of GDP)

Dimension 9

• Share of SMEs that adopted/use environmental management system (such as ISO 14001; EMAS), green certification (of business practices) and eco-labels (of products)

• Share of SMEs that offer green products or services, and share of those with a turnover share more than 50% generated by green products or services

• Share of environmental public procurement contracts of contracts with environmental technical specifications, as share of total number (or value) of contracts

• Number and share of SMEs that have benefitted from public support measures for greening measures

Dimension 10

• Budget of export promotion agencies

• Export performance of SMEs participating in government export promotion programmes (volume of free on board exports in EUR)

• Number of SMEs with active business linkages with MNEs

• SMEs’ share in indirect exports

• Share of SMEs with a website enabling an online purchase

• Share of SMEs with an e-payment system, allowing the receipt of secure payments online