Insights on Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Tourism, Regions and Cities
Cyberattacks can spell disaster for businesses of all sizes, but especially smaller firms. The median cost of a ransomware attack can amount to up to USD 1.2 million, and up to USD 1.6 million in the case of computer data breach. Urgent action is needed to support SMEs in better preparing and managing digital security risks.
Recent research suggests that women-founded businesses perform better over time and deliver higher revenue – more than twice as much per dollar invested – than men-founded businesses. In addition, women-founded start-up teams create more jobs for women – they employ 2.5 times more women than all-male start-up teams.
“scale up” account for the majority of new jobs in the economy. These firms can play a key role in the recovery. However, scaling up brings new challenges.
Greening can clearly save costs: improving energy efficiency in SMEs can Iead to cost savings by reducing their energy demand by 10- 30%. Beyond such cost benefits, improved energy efficiency can strengthen small-business resilience by reducing exposure to energy-price volatility and uncertainty, and improve product quality and safety.
The success story of Fine Food Group looks different from the glitzy high-tech start-ups featured in business magazines or in investment blogs. The OECD report Understanding Firm Growth: Helping SMEs Scale Up shows that its storyis nonetheless much more representative of a typical scaler than that of a high-tech start-up.
Es are the beating heart of the global economy. In Europe alone, there are 24 million small businesses, employing a total of 95 million people and generating €4 trillion a year. And yet, SMEs are still behind their larger counterparts in the integration of the digital tools that they need to increase productivity, scale-up and innovate.
COVID-19 has triggered an economic shock like no other in living memory. Social distancing and trading restrictions hit small businesses particularly hard, with many seeing
There are long-standing gender gaps in entrepreneurship. Women in OECD countries are about two-thirds as likely as men to be working on a start-up or young business.