Past Projects

International Comparative Studies and Course Development on SME's

Project Summary

• Title: International Comparative Studies and Course Development on SME's
• Funding body: Leonardo da Vinci, Procedure C
• Area of Activity: vocational training
• Contractor: Budapest Business School (Hungary)

This project was inspired by a previous Leonardo project entitled “A European Diploma in SME Management “, Ref.: F/98/1/65657/PI/ I.1.1,a/CONT. The objective of that pre-project was to develop a “European” SME Management diploma equivalent to a French “Maitrise“. Five EU countries participated, led by the University of Paris X-Nanterre, with Hungary subsequently joining the project as a silent partner.

Specific aims

• To produce comparable data bases and analytic descriptions of different European SME systems. To mobilize the national and international SME research communities to evaluate the proposed approach.
• To develop a comparative analysis of the different SME systems emphasizing compatibilities and discrepancies among them. To sensibilise the European institutions to take the results into consideration when drawing European strategy.
• To produce direct results the project will provide with teaching materials on the national SME systems and a comparative analytic curriculum of the participating countries SME systems based upon the afore-mentioned comparable descriptions.

Groups of activities

• A detailed framework for the description of national SME systems has been drawn up by the Institute of Sociology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in close collaboration with the country representatives and the Confederation of the Hungarian Industrials and Employers. As a basis, the scientific coordinator used the results from different international data bases, analyses and research projects, such as the international Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.
• The descriptions has been based upon available national data and indicators in each country and was detailed enough to characterize appropriately the national systems and to enable a rich comparative analysis to be made.
• The higher education institutions were expected to prepare the descriptive materials on their SME systems, including the data and all the indicators demanded by and agreed on with the fore-mentioned Institute of Sociology
• To prepare the dissemination the national representatives have been asked to produce the national descriptions in the form of a modular teaching curriculum.
• The Institute of Sociology prepared the comparative analyses of the different systems.
• On the basis of the national curricula the Hungarian initiators - the Budapest Business School and the Institute of Sociology – prepared a comparative curriculum focusing on similarities and discrepancies of the different SME systems.

Target groups

• The European and national decision makers.
• The strand was constituted by the academic communities of the participating countries and the European institutions invited to be partner in the project (Cedefop, European Observatory for SMEs, ETF).
• The national SMEs and beneficiaries of the different trainings.
• The regular student population who was reached by the projects’ results by the undergraduate or graduate trainings of the national representatives.