ABSTRACT
Most attention today in Greece is concentrated on the poor financial performance of the country’s relatively few large manufacturing companies and the large plants which they operate; small-scale firms and plants have not attracted much interest or concern. There is thus a need to initiate research into the small-firm dimension of regional and industrial change in Greece as a guide for policy-making in this field. New small firms have been even less an object of investigation. Unlike other EEC countries, no studies of new firm formation or entrepreneurial characteristics are available in Greece for the last 20 years. So this study has perforce to be based on aggregate figures obtained from the national censuses of manufacturing establishments. The most recent of these is for 1978, and provides data for establishments, not enterprises. Virtually all small establishments (less than 10 employees) in Greece are however independent single-plant firms. Census small-establishment data therefore affords a valid picture of small-firm distribution and characteristics.
