The Role of Higher Education Institutes in Advancing and Promoting SMEs for Research and Teaching Perspectives – Concept Paper

Abstract

Unemployment, extreme and persistent poverty, gender inequality and slow economic development are some of the challenges confronting the world today (Forum, 2016). Entrepreneurship has been identified as one of the solutions to these challenges (Musanzikwa, 2014). SMEs represent roughly 90% of all firms and are responsible for 50% of employment worldwide, as well as up to 40% of GDP in emerging markets, according to The World Bank (World Bank SME Finance: Development news, research, data | World Bank, 2021) Higher Education Institutes play crucial role in supporting and promoting SMEs. “Universities are agents of economic and technological development”, noted by Alexander and Eugeniy (2012:47) The traditional role of Higher Education Institutes is the creation and the dissemination of knowledge through Research and Education and hence they fuel the economy with a workforce that possesses knowledge and skills, hence HEIs play crucial role in supporting and promoting SMEs. In this concept paper we explore the role of HEIs in supporting SMEs from both research and teaching perspectives. We also shed the light on Internship and on its importance as one of the strategies that HEIs adopt in order to put knowledge into practical context and hence contributing to instilling the spirit of entrepreneurship in students. Furthermore, we examine the effect of internship on SMEs. Keywords: higher education, SMEs, research and teaching DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/15-5-01 Publication date: February 28 th 2023