SMEs Support Planning Improvement Based on its Suitable Structure

The subject of this paper was initiated by the importance of the determination of Suitable Structure of Support (SSS), as one of the support performances that the environment provides for the SME sector – in the case of SMEs in Serbia. It is recognized that the structure support planning is the root of the successful support to the SMEs sector, so the subject of this paper is the improvement of the SME support planning process based on a new structure determination (which contributes to the suitability of structure of SME support). A weak effect of the SMEs environmental support in Serbia, at the beginning of the 21st century, is the problem whose solution this paper is dedicated to. The conducted survey identified the cause of the problem: a Low Suitability of Structure Support which the environment provides, with SMEs’ support needs. Therefore, the way of structure support planning and, consequently, an inappropriate process of planning and providing support is recognized as a real problem of insufficient effectiveness of the support provided to the SMEs. The need for the improvement of the existing SME support planning process, as well as the way of determining the structure of support is identified. The Idea is reflected in the defined hypothesis (H0): If the planning of structure support that environment provides to the SME sector achieves a higher suitability with the structure expected by the owners/management of SMEs, better results of that support are achieved (and also higher SMEs’ business performance). The presented idea was tested in the case of providing support to the SME sector in Serbia. The intention is to show that the SME structure support can be improved (by being more suitable to the SMEs’ needs), and that this leads to the improvement of the planning of providing support to SMEs and their successfulness. This paper is intended for those who are planning and/or providing support to the SME sector. They are advised as to how to improve the performance of “Structure of Support” (specifically the “Suitability of Structure Support” indicator). The contribution of the paper, based on the Survey conducted in 2010-2012, shows that better results are achieved by those who apply the here proposed method of designing structure support while planning the support to the SME sector. This conclusion is derived from the observation that SME support is more effective if it is more suitable to the objective needs of SMEs. Therefore, the conclusion is that the first step should be to determine the desired SME structure of support from the environment, and then to plan other characteristics of support (such as details on the types of support, scopes, periods, methods of delivery, etc.). It is concluded that the new way of designing the structure of support and the proposed planning process of providing support leads to the improvement of the SME environmental support, which should be “kept permanently open“ for the improvement.