Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) constitute an important part of economic growth and dynamics not only for advanced industrialized countries but also for developing economies. Three approaches explaining the behaviors of SMEs' internationalization are proposed in the literature: the...

Whilst the variety of search activities promotes innovation, there is a central tension between a firm's potential benefits from wide and diverse search activities and its ability to reap these potential benefits. In this paper, we argue that the potential and realised benefits from a firm'...

The climate dominated by the economic-financial crisis represents a challenge both for the experienced firms and the new entrepreneurial ideas. Those who have succeeded in finding the most appropriate reforming solutions, within the current context, can be regarded at present as references for...

The aim of this paper is to study the differential effects of the public programs that provide financial aid to small and medium enterprises during times of crisis in Spain. We use different methods to control for potential selection bias. Our results show that the effects of these programs are...

In recent years, microfinance has greatly expanded the outreach of the financial system to millions of households in the Latin American and Caribbean region. The purpose of this report is to offer an updated snapshot of access to financial services in the region. The approach is two-fold. In the...

The current study gathers together a large database on the funding side of Latin American microfinance institutions (MFIs), providing detailed coverage of 61 regulated MFIs in nine Latin American countries with major microfinance markets. The study goes on to examine the relative costs of the...

This presentation gives an overview of business development, competiveness and innovation in Jamaica. Fical and financial incentives, other types of incentives and support systems are discussed as the way forward for improving the Science and Technology field. The presentation details that...

The IDB Group, guided by its Strategy for Microenterprise Development, has made the creation of a sustainable market of services to the sector one of its most important priorities during the past decade. This report presents an overview of the contributions the IDB has made to the...

A functional weakness of the training market is the extreme difficulty with which potential purchasers of "training" can gauge the quality of training programs in advance of payment. However, no training provider would allow a customer to delay payment of course fees until the course has been...