Promotion of SMEs

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Under SME development is defined as the sum of public and private efforts and measures aimed at strengthening the middle layers of society and especially of the commercial middle class. Nowadays, funding mostly consists of benefits in the form of low-interest loans, grants, guarantees, etc. to companies within the framework of defined size criteria with regard to turnover or the number of employees.

history

Historically, the idea of promoting small and medium- sized businesses can be traced back to the threat posed by the industrial revolution to more guild- oriented small business classes . Commercial cooperatives , state aid and special taxes were demanded as a counterbalance to the overpowering factories and large-scale sales forms of trade ( department stores , consumer cooperatives ) . The numerical weight of the small businesses gave these demands from the end of the 19th century importance in various political parties, namely those with Christian social and national conservative orientation. The social encyclicals rerum novarum and quadragesimo anno also had a motivating effect . The discussion about rather conflict-prone aspects of SME promotion played an essential role in the first half of the 20th century. Particularly in the context of the global economic crisis, the demands to push back large companies through special taxes or even tougher measures increased. In its party program, the NSDAP demanded, for example, the immediate communalization of large department stores and their leasing to small businesses at low prices. The Kampfbund for the commercial middle class under Theodor Adrian von Renteln called for the closure of all department stores, uniform price stores, consumer cooperatives and chain stores. De facto, however, even after the NSDAP came to power , there were individual actions such as the warehouse storm in Braunschweig and systematic Aryanization , but not the pushing back of the large companies.

Todays situation

After the Second World War and in the face of increasing liberalization of the economy, these front positions slowly dissolved. Today's SME policy at the state, state and EU level is concerned with improving the framework conditions for small and medium-sized enterprises, not least because of the importance of medium-sized companies for employment. According to the definition of medium-sized companies by the IfM Bonn, there were around 3.6 million medium-sized companies in Germany in 2006. This corresponds to 99.7% of all companies subject to VAT in Germany. In medium-sized companies there are almost 16 million employees subject to social security contributions, almost 66% of all employees in Germany. In addition, medium-sized companies generate more than 38% of all taxable sales, train almost 83% of all apprentices and account for over 47% of the net added value. For this reason, the European Union pays special attention to the concept of promoting small and medium-sized enterprises.

literature

  • Ursula Beyenburg-Weidenfeld: Competition theory, economic policy and the promotion of small and medium-sized businesses 1948-1963: SME policy in the field of tension between claims based on competition theory and economic policy pragmatism (Diss. Bonn 1989) Franz Steiner Verlag 1992
  • Heiko Mathias Sanders: Promotion of medium-sized companies and employment: On the effect of financing and investment aids on employment in small businesses in the trade (Diss. University of Lüneburg, 2001) Peter Lang Verlag, 2003 ISBN 3631392184

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see web link