SMEs and start-ups that grow rapidly contribute significantly to job creation, economic growth and competitiveness. Indeed, scalars, i.e., SMEs that grow by one-third over a three-year period, contribute about as much to job creation as large firms. However, there are barriers to SMEs scaling up and opportunities to better leverage their potential. This report examines and identifies the characteristics of scalers and, in turn, the policies that can support them.
The report draws on firm-level data for 17 OECD and accession candidate countries for the period 2014‑20 and includes a mapping of more than 2 500 SME and entrepreneurship policies of 520 institutions across OECD countries.
The central message of this report is that all types of SMEs, no matter their size, economic activity, age or location, can scale up, but that the likelihood is higher for some types of SMEs than others. An effective policy mix needs to cater to both realities. This means setting favourable framework conditions and broad‑based support for all types of SMEs to grow, as well as targeted interventions to support those SMEs with high growth potential.
The report contributes to the workstream on “Helping SMEs to Scale Up”, developed by the OECD with the support of the European Commission, that has produced two earlier reports: “Understanding Firm Growth: Helping SMEs Scale Up”, released in November 2021 and “Financing Growth and Turning Data into Business: Helping SMEs Scale Up”, released in October 2022.
This report was prepared by the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE), as part of the Programme of Work and Budget of the OECD Committee on SMEs and Entrepreneurship (CSMEE) and the Regional Development Policy Committee (RDPC).
The final report was approved by written procedure by the CSMEE on 01 September 2025 [CFE/SME(2025)14].