Demography of small and medium enterprises in Belarus

Abstract

Business demography is an important information basis for making strategic decisions in the business area. This allows institutional bodies to optimally adjust their policies regarding the development of entrepreneurship nationally in such areas as regional development, employment, unemployment, education, sources of financing for small and medium-sized businesses, innovation policy, simplification of bureaucratic procedures, etc. Business demographic indicators characterise the dynamics of economic development through the adaptation of economic structures to changing market conditions. In addition, they assess the potential contribution that new start-ups can make to the important employment problem through job creation. At the same time, the organisation is primarily seen as a community of people, and capital optimisation is presented as an addition to the optimisation of people. In the study, in addition to analysing the classic indicators of business demography such as the activity population of enterprises, “birth”, “survival” (up to five years after birth), “death”, etc., a new indicator was proposed for implementation: the natural increase rate in the number of organisations in Belarus calculated both for the economy and for the types of economic activity. The study will help to develop recommendations for developing measures in the field of entrepreneurship development using a regression model that identifies the relationship between changes in business demographics and employment. A set of measures to support entrepreneurship are becoming an integral part of national economic policy, a powerful factor in increasing the level of “survival” of enterprises and increasing the share of “fast-growing” organisations. This contributes to the achievement of sustainable development goals. Stimulating development and support for small business, with the ability to quickly respond to changes in market conditions, will help provide the “coronavirus” economy with the necessary flexibility, an especially important factor in the context of COVID-19.