Small Business in Europe

Abstract

The book has looked at the small business environment in seven diverse European countries. All, except Switzerland, are members of the European Economic Community (EEC) — a community whose objective is the harmonisation of the general legal and economic environment facing businesses. However, until relatively recently, it was thought that this harmonisation would in the main benefit large businesses. In the days of the Bolton Report it was argued that the decline in the small business sector could be attributed in large part to advances in transport and communication and, looked at in this way, the development of the EEC would just hasten the process of business concentration.