International Ownership and SMEs in Middle Eastern and African Economies

In their working paper on SMEs in the MENA region, researchers from the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences in Germany highlight the positive aspects that international ownership has on the performance of small and medium-sized enterprises in particular, which often have limited or no access to resources without the support of global sponsors.

In their research, they find that internationally owned SMEs use less capital and have lower debt levels than nationally owned SMEs. Nonetheless, according to their findings, international ownership boosts SME performance as measured by sales and return on equity.

You can read the full text here. It is a working paper of the Department of Economics and Law of the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences. It disseminates the research results of a work in progress in advance of a later publication. In addition to a general exchange of ideas, the aim is above all to stimulate academic debate on the topic.