Governments across the OECD spend considerable sums of public money on supporting SMEs and entrepreneurs, but there is surprisingly little reliable evidence on the effectiveness of different types of policy intervention. This is due to a lack of widespread reliable impact evaluation. The International SME and Entrepreneurship Policy Evaluation Discussion Network, supported by the UK Government's Department of Business and Trade, enables policy makers and experts to exchange at a technical level on the policy and evaluation lessons from recent high-quality SME and entrepreneurship policy evaluations. It involves quarterly online workshops or hybrid meetings.
SME and Entrepreneurship Policy Evaluation Discussion Network
A forum for policy makers and evaluators to exchange on the results of reliable SME and entrepreneurship policy evaluations and the implications for policy.
About the SME and Entrepreneurship Policy Evaluation Discussion Network
How it works
The OECD has also established an SME and Entrepreneurship Policy Evaluation Discussion Network, which comprises regular online and in-person events to share the findings and policy lessons from reliable evaluations of SME and entrepreneurship programmes.
Events
This workshop presented and discussed the evaluation of a major SME consultancy programme operated by the Small and Medium Business Authority of Israel. This programme offered SMEs subsidised consultancy support with matched consultants. The evaluation assessed the programme impacts on SME survival and growth, examining how the impacts varied based on the intensity of support by dividing the treatment group into SMEs that received more than 50 hours of consultancy support (full treatment) and those that received less than 50 hours support (partial treatment).
Meeting Documents:
- Agenda
- Summary Note
- Presentation by Pablo Shah: Key issues and evaluation evidence on SME consultancy programmes
This workshop was the annual in-person meeting of the International SME and Entrepreneurship Policy Discussion Network. It discussed the findings and methodologies of evaluations of SME management development and SME growth support programmes and their lessons for policy and evaluation. It included a presentation and discussion of evaluation findings on the UK’s Help to Grow management training programme, which provides leadership and management training, mentorship and networking to SMEs. It also featured an evaluation of the Company Expansion Supports programme in Ireland, which assisted businesses with ambitious plans to grow employment and exports by supporting investment in areas such as R&D, training and management development.
Meeting Documents:
This workshop presented the evaluation of the joint supports offered by ICEX Spain Trade and Investment (ICEX) to assist SME exporters in Spain. The two main types of supports considered were i). information services and ii). direct participation in ICEX programmes. The evaluation analysed during the workshop assessed the impact of the two different types of support on SMEs’ exports, sales and employment. Network participants discussed the lessons of the evaluation, including which aspects of its design and delivery worked well and which others did not work well. The webinar also offered an opportunity to share evaluation findings on export support programmes from other countries as well as to network with other policy officials and evaluators who are participating in the International SME and Entrepreneurship Policy Discussion Network.
Meeting Documents:
This workshop explored the policy lessons and evaluation evidence of the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) programme of the United States Small Business Administration (SBA). The SBDC programme delivers individualised advisory services and technical assistance to existing SMEs, as well as pre-venture entrepreneurs. The lead of the national SBDC programme introduced the programme and provide an overview of previous evaluation activities and findings followed by an in-depth presentation of an evaluation study examining the impacts of the SBDC’s advisory services in the state of California.
Meeting Documents:
46%
of the 50 reliable evaluations profiled in the OECD Evaluation Framework 2023
identified a positive programme impact.
24%
of the 50 reliable evaluations profiled in the OECD Evaluation Framework 2023
achieved the top score of 5 in the OECD’s Evaluation Quality Score.
30%
of the 50 reliable evaluations profiled in the OECD Evaluation Framework 2023
take into account the survival or non-survival of businesses in the study.
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Related events
Get in touch
For further information, please contact Jonathan Potter or Pablo Shah
Jonathan Potter, Head of Unit
Pablo Shah, Policy Analyst