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Small & medium enterprise Competitiveness Atlas

Deepen understanding of small and medium-sized enterprises competitiveness worldwide by assessing their strengths and weaknesses in a clear, accessible way, shedding light on opportunities to increase sales at home and abroad.

SMECS

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What is competitiveness?

Competitiveness is the ability of a firm to design, produce and commercialise a good or service that meets market demand, while connecting with the business environment and earning returns in a sustainable way. The more competitive a firm, the more likely it is to export.

At ITC, we assess firm competitiveness along three pillars – Compete, Connect, Change and three levels of competitiveness – Firm Capabilities, Business Ecosystems, National Environment.

Competitiveness Themes

Each pillar of competitiveness has three themes, which allow identifying where the strengths and weaknesses of a firm lie.

The health of a country’s economy is closely linked to the competitiveness of its small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Collecting data at the firm level should be the first step to support their growth, as we must know the strengths to be leveraged and weaknesses to be addressed.

How does ITC obtain data on small businesses competitiveness?

To collect the data accurately, ITC developed the SME Competitiveness Survey.

SME Competitiveness Survey is more than a questionnaire – it assesses the strengths and weaknesses of enterprises in a country in a clear, accessible way, shedding light on opportunities to increase sales at home and abroad.

The data collection and analysis process is anonymised to protect the privacy of participating firms.

Geographical Coverage

More than 36,000 companies in over 57 countries have been surveyed to date using the SME Competitiveness Survey.

Publications

SME competitiveness survey results are published as part of the ITC promoting competitiveness series of reports.

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Why work with ITC?

By partnering with ITC, countries can learn the full, data-based story of the state of its small businesses, then use that information to better support them. ITC provides each partner country the following support in collecting and assessing information on SME competitiveness:

Capacity building

Expert advice

Software

Feedback reports

Support

Quality control

Outreach reports

An accurate dataset

With more than 50 years of trade and development experience, ITC has supported partners to survey more than 36,000 companies in over 57 countries, spotlighting opportunities to improve small business competitiveness.

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How is the survey conducted?

Conducting a small business intelligence survey involves the following steps:

Partner identification

A national institution – usually the business support organization – is selected as the survey focal point, and a core team of partner institutions is established.

Training

ITC works with the focal point institution to select and train survey interviewers on data gathering, prepare a comprehensive list of small firms in the country and draw a representative sample of firms to be interviewed.

Data analysis

ITC analyses the collected data and interprets them in collaboration with partners. The focal point institution maps its services offering and account for gaps identified through the survey. The analysis is then presented in a country report.

Data collection

Select small businesses receive an information pack, then a phone call to determine their willingness to participate in the survey. Finally, face-to-face interviews are conducted.

Results validation

Report findings are discussed and validated among partners.

Report launch

The focal point institution convenes a stakeholder meeting where survey results are presented. Solutions are discussed and complementary areas of ITC work and technical assistance can be proposed to support them.

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What are partners saying about ITC’s work?

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Work carried out through the SME competitiveness survey and the Alliances for Action approach aims to provide data so that multi-stakeholder groups can decide how best to target support and activities.

Seth Twum-Akwaboah

Chief Executive Officer, Association of Ghana Industries

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The SME competitiveness survey is extremely important as it provides ZDA with an opportunity to interface with the private sector, understand their production and marketing dynamics as well as their challenges, and make recommendations to government.

Mary Ncube

Board Chairperson, Zambia Development Agency

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Results from the SME competitiveness benchmarking have allowed us to better assess the skills gaps along the value chain and ultimately identify youth employment opportunities.

Suwaibou Cham

Former Senior Manager for Research and Surveys, The Gambia Investment and Export Promotion Agency

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The data will enable us to design SME support programmes and services to improve [our] efficiency. TEPA will be in a position to attract donor and/or grant-funding agencies to assist in areas of weakness and allow for investment in sectors/industry that are proven to perform well.

Jerson Badal

Director of Client Services, Trade Export Promotion Agency, Saint Lucia

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