Press Release: Internationally active SMEs yield better results

25% of EU 27 small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) export or have exported at some point during the last 3 years. This is revealed in a new European Commission study available on line. Internationally active SMEs report an employment growth of 7% whereas the figure stood at 1% for those without any international activities. There is also a strong relationship between internationalisation and innovation. 26% of internationally active SMEs introduced products or services that were new for their sector in their country; for other small businesses this is only 8%. However, international activities are mostly geared towards other countries inside the internal market and only about 13% of EU SMEs are active in markets outside the EU. European firms are more internationally active, compared with US and Japanese SMEs. These are some of the findings of the study 'Internationalisation of European SMEs'. It maps the level of internationalisation of European SMEs and identifies the main barriers and advantages of internationalisation.