Chapter 10 Consultancy program for small- and medium-sized enterprises

Abstract

Peripheral areas generally have difficulties making the structural adjustments needed to accommodate national growth, and this in turn leads to growing unemployment rates, regional economic gaps, and continuous migration to metropolitan centers. SMEs located in rural areas or small towns are expected to play an important role in the process of economic development, absorbing excess labor force from agriculture, and leading the transition to non-farm employment (Leite, 1986). In practice, however, SMEs face substantial difficulties in their attempts to integrate into the national trends of economic growth. To a certain extent this can be attributed to the fact that management may possess inadequate skills and not have information at their disposal. In other cases, management may simply lack awareness of the importance of these fields.

Citation

Bar-El, R. (2008), "Chapter 10 Consultancy program for small- and medium-sized enterprises", Bar-El, R. (Ed.) Regional Development and Conflict Management: A Case for Brazil (Contributions to Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development, Vol. 8), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 137-149. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1572-8323(08)08010-7