Flash Eurobarometer 486 (SMEs, Start-ups, Scale-ups and Entrepreneurship)

SMEs, start-ups, scale-ups and entrepreneurship.<br>Topics: growth of the company since 2016 with regard to: number of full-time equivalent employees, turnover; planned growth of the company (in percent) with regard to: number of full-time equivalent employees, turnover; attitude towards the following statements with regard to growth in employment or turnover: existence of a strategic plan, plans to grow as a result of introducing some kind of innovation, plans to grow as a result of operating in growing markets, plans to grow as a result of entering new markets, plans to grow as a result of increased digitalisation in the enterprise, plans to grow in the own country, plans to grow in EU countries, plans to grow in other non-EU countries; current situation of the company: no intention to grow beyond current size, lack of employees with skills or expertise needed to grow, no financial resources to grow, decreasing demand for the enterprise´s products or services or the market is saturated, additional regulatory or administrative burdens and requirements would be too high for the enterprise to grow, enterprise does not want to grow because it would lose benefits linked to its SME status, current location of the enterprise does not allow to grow and it is not wished to relocate elsewhere, enterprise relies on a few clients which are unlikely to increase their demand, other; location of the company: large town or city, small town or village, rural area, industrial area, near a border with an EU country, near a border with a non-EU country; applicable statements with regard to the own company: mainly provides goods, mainly provides services, sells goods online to buyers in EU countries, is member of an industry cluster or another SME business support organisation in the region, is part of a global value chain, has a patent or a patent application, is a non-profit enterprise, has a strategy or action plan to digitalise, other, none; probability for the company to obtain external financing in case of need; international markets to which the enterprise did export goods or services in 2019: enterprise only operates in the own country, EU countries, other European countries outside of the EU (incl. Russia), North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, China, Rest of Asia and the Pacific, Middle East and Africa; percentage of the company´s total turnover in 2019 that was accounted for by exports of goods and services to countries outside of the EU; assessment of the business environment with regard to: strength and performance of regional business environment, access to private and public finance, quality of support services provided by private and public actors, access to and collaboration with business partners, availability of staff with the right skills, availability of support to help enterprises become more sustainable, legal and administrative environment, infrastructure for businesses; most important problems for the company; key problems; introduction in the last twelve months of: new or significantly improved products or services, new or significantly improved production processes, new organisational methods, new way of selling goods or services, innovation with environmental benefit, social innovations, other type of innovation, none; most important barriers to innovation in the own country; most important barriers to digitalisation in the enterprise; company’s approach to digital technologies: adopted or is planning to adopt basic digital technologies (e.g. email or a website), willing to introduce advanced digital technologies but lacks knowledge or skills or financing to adopt them, willing to introduce advanced digital technologies and enterprise is currently considering which of them to adopt, willing to introduce advanced digital technologies and enterprise has already started to adopt them, enterprise does not need to adopt any digital technologies, other, none; already adopted digital technologies: artificial intelligence, cloud computing, robotics, smart devices, big data analytics, high speed infrastructure, blockchain, other; measures taken with regard to environmental and social sustainability: recycling or reusing materials, reducing consumption of or impact on natural resources, saving energy or switching to sustainable energy sources, developing sustainable products or services, improving working conditions of employees, promoting and improving diversity and equality in the workplace, evaluating the impact of the enterprise on society, engaging employees in the governance of the enterprise, none; existence of a strategy or action plan with regard to becoming a sustainable enterprise; obstacles preventing the enterprise from becoming sustainable.

Demography: information about the company: number of employees, company size, year of company establishment; total turnover in 2019; ownership of the company; position of respondent at the company.

Additionally coded was: respondent ID; country; NACE-Code; date of interview; nation group; weighting factor.