%A Florio, Massimo %A Vallino, Elena %A Vignetti, Silvia %D 2017 %T How to Design Effective Strategies to Support SMEs Innovation and Growth During the Economic Crisis %! How to Design Effective Strategies to Support SMEs Innovation and Growth During the Economic Crisis %X <p>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.</p> %U %0 Journal Article %J European Structural and Investment Funds Journal %V 5 %N 2