News from 2019-11-06 / KfW Research

European SME Survey 2019

Going Digital – The Challenges Facing European SMEs

More than one in two European SMEs consider the use of new digital technologies necessary to secure their competitiveness. Many small and medium-sized enterprises have not yet made much progress here due to a number of digitalisation hurdles, including insufficient digital infrastructures and a lack of digital competency, both in the business itself and on the external labour market. This is shown in a joint study from KfW Research and the European promotional institutions Bpifrance, BGK, ICO and the British Business Bank, in which more than 2,500 small and medium-sized enterprises in Germany, France, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom were surveyed. Although some SMEs anticipate that some tasks in their company may become obsolete as a result of digitalisation, most of them believe that the number of employees in their company will remain stable – or even grow.

European SME Survey 2019

Contact

KfW Research

KfW Group

Palmengartenstrasse 5-9

60325 Frankfurt

Germany

Economic Research

Economic Research

Economic development in Germany and around the world, studies on topics relevant to society such as environmental and climate protection, demography, globalisation, innovation and sustainability, impact of KfW promotional programmes.