EIM's Research Programme on Entrepreneurship and SMEs
EIM carries out a long term research program on entrepreneurship and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which is being financed by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. This program is also known as SCALES (SCientific AnaLysis of Entrepreneurship and SMEs). Over the years this research program has created a unique, authoritative and publicly available knowledge centre regarding the prevalence and performance of small and/or new enterprises, with a special focus on the Netherlands. Main activities are the collection and processing of survey data and statistics, scientific analysis, publication of research findings and various activities to distribute the findings to a greater public. Some main target groups of the program are policy makers, advisory organizations and fellow researchers.

The findings of the scientific analyses are usually published in English, by means of Research Reports. Research findings are also presented at the major conferences in this field such as RENT, BABSON, EARIE and the GEM Research Conferences, and are published in scholarly journals.

Major themes
The domain of SMEs and entrepreneurship is wide and diverse. Some major themes are:
- nascent entrepreneurship,
- business start-ups,
- high growth enterprises,
- firm size distribution,
- innovation,
- internationalization,
- job creation and
- human resources management in SMEs.
On many of these themes EIM disposes of unique primary as well as statistical data.

Access to research findings
The website is the major route of access to EIM’s scientific research findings about SMEs and entrepreneurship from 1998 onwards. At present, more than 200 downloadable publications in English are available on this site. Also, three international datasets can be accessed on line through this website. A Dutch language website also includes all general reports directed at policymakers and the business sector as well as many more datasets.

Scientific cooperation
For its scientific research EIM intensively cooperates with Erasmus University Rotterdam as well as with other universities in the Netherlands and across the world. In this way the SCALES program has a lively discourse with the academic community and new research findings from elsewhere are easily absorbed.

For a short overview of the latest research reports from EIM, please click here.

Contact Information
EIM Business & Policy Research
Bredewater 26
2715 CA Zoetermeer
P.O. BOX 7001
2701 AA Zoetermeer

Telephone: +31 79 343 02 00
Infoservice: +31 79 343 06 04

Fax: +31 79 343 02 02
Email: info@ondernemerschap.nl