what is the role of smes in an economy 
though small smes play an important role in an economy they outnumber large firms employ vast numbers of people and are generally entrepreneurial in nature helping to shape innovation 12small and midsize enterprises can exist in almost any industry but are more likely to reside within industries requiring fewer employees and smaller up front capital investments common types of smes include legal firms dental offices restaurants and bars smes are segregated from large multinational companies because they fundamentally operate differently large complex firms may require advanced enterprise resource planning erp systems for accounting supply chain management and financial reporting and interconnectivity across offices around the world or deeper organizational processes 3 smes on the other hand may require fewer systems given their narrower scope of operations small and midsize enterprises smes around the worldin the united states the small business administration sba classifies a small business according to its ownership structure number of employees earnings and industry 4 for example in manufacturing an sme is a firm with 500 or fewer employees 5 in contrast businesses that mine copper ore and nickel ore can have up to 1 400 employees and still be identified as smes 6 the u s distinctly classifies companies with fewer than 10 employees as a micro business 