ABSTRACT

The Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) framework provides a modelling tool to answer one set of questions about the role of SMEs in the national and regional economy. The SAM accounting and modelling tool has a considerable potential value with respect to the systematic inclusion of externalities into the study of Small and Medium size Enterprises (SMEs) performance and their role in the economy. The SMEs and large enterprises are included in the SAM-framework as sub-sectors of the production account and as sub-sectors in the institutional account. In the interregional SAM, interregional and international commodity trade, commuting in the factor market and investments become a part of the environment for the SMEs. The role of SMEs in the regional economy can be analysed using the fundamental structure of the economy embedded in the regional economy and represented in the SAM.