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Foreword

Digitalisation and small and medium-sized enterprises – The role of financing in the time of a pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic has shown how essential digitisation is for a resilient economy. Highly digitised companies have found it much easier to cope with the crisis than digital laggards. Building on this lesson, it is now essential to accelerate the digital transformation and build a stronger, greener, and more resilient economy. Full digitisation requires combining established digital solutions with new and emerging technologies across all sectors, and that, in turn, depends on ensuring sufficient access to finance.

That is why I welcome the timely publication of this study with its focus on financing the digitisation of small and medium-sized enterprises. In particular, the identification of the role that digital innovation hubs can play as key enablers in emerging digital ecosystems is a valuable contribution.

The study reminds us that there are great differences in the ways in which new and emerging technologies are implemented in European companies depending on the company size or region. The European Commission is determined not to leave any European company behind. It has built a coherent package of measures to fight the economic crisis of European economies, including the liquidity problems. The most notable measure in this respect is the Next Generation EU recovery instrument.

However, beyond the immediate support to help businesses stay afloat, it is also critical to continue giving European companies the necessary instruments to invest in their digital transformation. Although this is still risky for companies, there is potentially also a large reward. Indeed, the previous crisis – the financial crisis starting in 2008 – showed that companies able to invest and re-invent themselves through innovation have better growth perspectives in the following years.

To that end, the European Commission has launched initiatives to enable companies to emerge healthier and more prepared for the future from this crisis than from the previous one.

For example, a pilot under the COSME programme together with the EIB Group provides guaranteed loans for small and medium-sized enterprises willing to invest in their digital transformation. Another pilot promotes early and growth-stage equity investments in artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies.

In another example, since 2016, the European Commission has supported digital innovation hubs, which are boosting regional digital ecosystems by helping companies digitise. In the proposed Digital Europe Programme, the Commission plans to co-invest together with Member States to systematically increase the capacity of European digital innovation hubs and strengthen their network.

With these considerations in mind, I believe that the present study will be a valuable input for financial institutions, policymakers and managers in overcoming existing financial barriers to the digitisation of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Roberto Viola

Director General, Communications Networks, Content & Technology

European Commission