- Volume 5 (2017), Issue 2
- Vol. 5 (2017), No. 2
- >
- Pages 99 - 110
- pp. 99 - 110
How to Design Effective Strategies to Support SMEs Innovation and Growth During the Economic Crisis
Lessons from Ex-post Evaluation of 2007-2013 ERDF Programmes
This paper presents and discusses some of the results of the ex-post evaluation of the contribution of the European Regional Development Fund 2007-2013 programmes to SMEs growth and innovation. Implemented during a harsh economic crisis, the ERDF provided € 47.5 billion of SMEs support, representing 16 % of the total ERDF allocation during the 2007-2013 period. Programme strategies aimed more to cope with the contingent economic pressures and fall in employment levels than to address long-term objectives addressing structural barriers affecting target SMEs. The majority of policy instruments which were conceived, or further adjusted during the reprogramming phase, for generic SMEs support generated a diffuse stabilizing and anticyclical mechanism. Findings however show that the most effective strategies were represented by those more ambitious instruments that had a well specified logic intervention, focused objectives and selective targeting strategies.