Small and medium Enterprises in Morocco

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Small and medium Enterprises in Morocco: Definition’s Issues and Challenges Sofia MOUHALLAB1 Wei JIANGUO2

Abstract: _as a heterogeneous group of businesses, Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) has been the most essential component for developing and developed economies. Even their important contribution, SMEs still do not have a unanimous definition either in the national level or in the international one. Therefore, it is important to always search in the current literature for the updates about the definition of the SMEs. Small firms are independent firms, which employ less than a given number of employees and have a specific turnover or a balance sheet. Hence, most of variables defining SMEs varies across countries and are not official. In the following work, we are going to highlight the SME definition’s issues in most countries, and especially in Morocco. Then, we will propose some new perspectives to define small businesses and make the existence of this sector more specific and clear basing on literature review and statistics. Keywords: Small and Medium Enterprises, SME definition, qualitative criteria, quantitative criteria, ratio of size. Introduction Small and Medium Enterprises are heterogeneous group of businesses(OECD 2004)with an importance unanimously known. They are considered as the engine of economic growth, the main driver of job creation (Nasr & Pearce 2012) and critical for poverty reduction in most of developing countries. They are considered as an essential component of the economic fabric, even if they still face some big issues. The main constraint faced by small entrepreneurs is the none official definition of the SMEs in the international level (Balkenhol et al. 2013) as well as the national one. In the Morocco, defining the SMEs is still difficult as well as the most of developing countries. Indeed, there is no single official and universal definition for SMEs(Mukhtar 1998) and several definitions have been proposed but no one can be considered as the universal one. In fact, most of the proposed definitions depend either on quantitative parameters or exclusively qualitative ones, or even a combination of both. Therefore, it is important to always search in the current literature for the updates about the definition of the SMEs. Since a universal SMEs' definition would ease the design of loans, access to finance and statistical research. In the following paper, a brief literature review of the different problems of definition of SMEs will be present as a first part. Then, we present in the second part, some evidence on SMEs in Morocco, by giving an overview of the current situation of these businesses. Moreover, the discussion of the problematic of definition is important by listing the different definitions of the SMEs proposed... In the following work, an important challenge will be confront in this work; it is difficult to obtain data because most of the available one includes the informal sector, which represent a big part in the country. Since the definition of SMEs is considered as one of the numerous constraints that block the startup and 1

Mouhallab Sofia is currently PhD Student at Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China. She held a national diploma of state-certified engineer in applied economics in 2012 from National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics (INSEA), Rabat, Morocco. Email: [email protected] 2 Wei Jianguo was born on January 20, 1963. He is a finance professor in the School of Economics at Wuhan University of Technology, P.R. China. His research interests are capital market and investment, financial institute management

surviving of SMEs. In the last part, we will propose a new perspective that will make the definition of this sector more specific and clear basing on the literature review and the statistics. 1. Literature Review: Small and Medium Enterprises form the backbone of all economies, they are considered as the vital source of economic growth. Nowadays, most of the economists and policy makers, give more attention to the SMEs due to their importance in the national productive tissue, contribution in the employment and active role in the growth process. Moreover, in many results of surveys, SMEs suffer from many problems, which hinder their development. They can be described as constraints and barriers not only to the development of small businesses but also to their survival. One of the most common problems faced by SMEs is the lack of a common and official definition (Scarborough 2012). As an example, Rutashobya & Olomi, (1999)have found that there were more than 50 different definitions in 75 countries. Despite the role of SMEs, this category has been badly served by faulty definitions. Note that although a unique SMEs definition does not exist and having an official definition of small firms would ease the aid measures to numerous enterprises and especially the newly created. Moreover, due to the absence of standard definition of the small businesses, in spite of the availability of data in the industrial sector makes the performance of an analysis extremely difficult in economic and financial fields(Mylenko et al. 2011). In fact, enterprises qualify as Micro, Small or Medium Enterprises if they fulfill maximum ceilings for staff headcount and either a turnover or a balance sheet ceiling(European Union 2003).Compounding of all these facts, the term SME still covers a wide range of definitions and measures. Some of the commonly used criteria are based on financial resources. Actually, 68 countries provided information on the SME definition criteria used by the financial regulator; number of employees, total net assets, sales and investment level. However, the most common basis for definition is employment(Hunt 1993), 50of these countries base their definition on this criterion and more than the half use two or more criteria. The SME's definition is based on the country; which prove the fact that economists adopt different criteria for defining SMEs(Mylenko et al. 2011). This make the establishment of a global definition difficult and in the some cases impossible. Even though, there is a need for an international benchmark to enable researchers to make comparisons between different countries and establish a universal definition of SMEs. This common problem make the definition of SME complicated and without a uniform criterion across countries (Ayyagari et al. 2007). Hence, there is no consensus on the best way to approach relative definitions and even external researchers have not been able to achieve consensus on common definitions (Heider et al. 2014). Moreover, the definition of SMEs varies and becomes a controversial subject, the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh at 2009 focuses on this topic and most of big organizations try to work on it. Furthermore, they have not published or defined specific definition on the SME. Unfortunately, there is no unified definition of SME, even within one country, due to the multiplicity of criteria and proposition of international organizations and national institutions. As evidenced above, the most common criteria is the quantitative criterion and especially the number of workers. Even though, these criteria are the most used in financial organizations because they are easily collected from official sources. However, using these variables to can 2

have a risk, which is the comparison of businesses whose productions or operational systems use different levels of technology. In order to enhance the economic situation of countries, in an OECD conference on SMEs in 2004 a key policy recommendation was point out which is; the development of a common definition of SME (OECD 2004).In some developed countries, as Morocco, some organizations and banks were obliged to provide their own definition of SME. In this case, what exactly an SME is dependent on who is doing the definition?(Bawa & Gunapalan 2012).Considering all these issues, it is recommended to follow the criteria that represent the country by thinking of the qualitative criteria more than quantitative ones. SME definition consists of three problems: international/institutional definitions; specific country definitions and industry definitions (Pula & Berisha 2015). Hence, there are several definitions and a distinction can be made between quantitative and qualitative definitions. In some report of international organizations such as;((European Union 2003), (Heider et al. 2014),(OECD 2005)) the definition of SME is based on some quantitative measures such as staffing levels, turnover or assets. Besides quantitative aspects, SME can also be defined in qualitative aspects(Meredith 1994). Meredith suggests that any description of SMEs must include or combine a quantitative and qualitative component. In other words, more than financial assets and labor force, organizations should add to the definition of SMEs the qualitative criteria that reflects how businesses are organized. In his work, (Marwede 1983), pointed out other qualitative criteria to define small businesses which are; legal form, the role of the firm’s owner, their position on the market, the organizational structure or economic and legal autonomy. Wynarczyk, Watson, Storey, Short, & Keasey, (1993)created an alternative definition that captures the more subtle, qualitative differences between small and large firms. For this reason, researchers should not ignore qualitative criteria in their proposition. Moreover, using qualitative criteria is more complex and difficult, but allows to capture the essence of SMEs (consider the difference between a small shipyard and a small shop, both in terms of employment and turnover). In most economies, various laws and policies have been practiced for SME’s development. Nevertheless, surprisingly, these firms have not received the attention supposed, since we still face the problem of having an official definition of small businesses. Historically, development economists placed greater importance on the larger corporations as a reliable driving force for the successful development of a country, reflecting the success of developed countries. The definition of a small enterprise in developing country such as Morocco; it should include firms with a certain numbers of workers, a limited turnover. Moreover, in this paper, we will try to categorizes SMEs depending on the sector of activity (Buyev 1999). In other words, we will try to contextualize the definition of these firms to the country context. 2. Moroccan small and medium enterprises: importance and problems of the sector a) Definition of the Moroccan Small and Medium Enterprises: The Moroccan SMEs play an essential economic and social role. In fact, the small entrepreneurs cover the lack of the large investment and create a primary economic fabric which will enhance the development of these countries (Ferrier 2002). Furthermore, Moroccan SME's sector is considered as a generator of appreciable revenues and an important creator of employments. As we mentioned in the first part, the definition of the SME is one of the common problem faced by countries. This permanent problem of definition, push most of 3

researchers to be aware and not spend a lot energy on the Moroccan SME. In fact, most of international organizations based their definitions on a quantitative criterion such as, the number of employees(Centre d’études et de perfectionnement de l'artisanat et des métiers 1987), turnover and balance sheet. In 1983, in the investment code enacted in January, Moroccan SMEs have at the first time a legal definition3. Based only on many qualitative criteria, the SME definition was only related to the needs of national and international organization and financial institutions. In July 23, 2002, a unified definition based on quantitative definition was settled under the Law 53-00 of SMEs charter. This definition was based on two criteria; the first is the number of permanent employees and the second is the turnover or balance sheet total. According to OECD, SMEs are non-subsidiary, independent firms which employ less than a given number of employees. This number varies across countries and the most frequent upper limit designating an SME is:  Micro enterprises: 1 to 4 employees (In Morocco, we need to distinguish the very small micro enterprises; 1 to 3 employees. And those with 4 to 9 employees) (Hamdouch et al. 2004)  Very small enterprises: 5 to 19 employees (In Morocco, a company with less than 10 employees)  Small enterprises: 20 to 99 employees  Medium enterprises:100 to 500 employees  Big enterprises: more than 500 employees Before 2005, most of the organization based the definition of SME on the number of employees. Actually, the workforce is considered as the closest variable to assess the contribution of the SMEs to GDP of the country. Nevertheless, in some European countries, this criterion does not determine an official definition of SME. For this reason, a second quantitative criterion retained in Morocco which is the turnover. However, MarocPME (ANPME4) and CGEM5 have developed a new common definition that has a dual purpose; having a unified definition that reflects the size businesses need to face globalization. Moreover, for new SMEs, the Moroccan government obliged that these firms should have a lower initial investment program or equal to 25 MDHS and follow an investment over job less than 250 000 MAD 6. In addition, this definition is complex and does not allow having a correct estimation of the proportion of companies that can qualify as SMEs. In addition, it deviates several companies because the threshold is relatively low and leads to the exclusion of companies with capital-intensive activities. The final version of the new definition of SMEs developed by MarocPME is based only on the turnover criterion. By this definition, three types of companies are distinguished:  Any company with a turnover of less than 3MDHS is considered as a micro enterprise;  Any company with a turnover between 3 MDHS and 10 MDHS is considered as a very small enterprise; 3Article

3 of the Code defines SMEs as “the company, which invests in the creation or extension does not exceed 5 million Dirham and values in many facilities created by stable employment does not exceed 70,000 dirham”. 4ANPME 5CGEM (general confederation of enterprises of morocco) 6The ministry of industry and trade is based solely on size criteria measured by the number of employees to determine SMEs. According to the selection, all companies less than 200 permanent employees is an SME

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 Any company with a turnover is between 10 MDHS and 175 MDHS7, the company is considered as a SME. As a conclusion, the size of the company remains subject to numerous controversies. In addition, analyzing this new version of SME definition prove that the integration of the criterion of the number it does not become an objective. Since we can find some companies with a big number of employees and a few turnover, the introduction of a new variable to definition SME can be helpful. However, these limits of the turnover vary from organization to another and from a country to country which make the introduction of some qualitative criteria for the classification of enterprises important in order to give higher intensity of national and regional aid to the small businesses than large companies. Given the importance of small entrepreneurs to the economy, this category may have close relationships (financial, operational or governance…) with most of the large firms of the country. The definition of SME is the most practical tool that can be established in order to help these firms to identify themselves so they can ensure the full support of the government. In the next part, we will try to put an adequate definition to small businesses in Morocco as one of the developing countries. b) The importance of Small and Medium Enterprises: The new plan of industrial acceleration (2014-2020)in Morocco(Minister of Industry Trade and Digital Economy 2014) has as an objective the enhancing of the GDP of the country from 14% to 23%. However, the level of industry in the GDP of Morocco is insufficient (14%) and does not correspond to the ambition that Morocco has in order to become a big industrial force in North Africa and in MENA. Moreover, this plan has as purpose to create 500.000 jobs for the benefit of the young(Commission Economique pour L’Afrique 2016). In fact, this plan is based on a conviction that the industrial SME with a certain level of performance and innovation has the ability to enhance the competition of the nation and contribute to absorb the new entrants on the employment market(Bouhdoud, M) 8 .Therefore, to achieve this industrialization, the Moroccan kingdom puts in place many measures and policies in order to improve the productivity and the competitiveness of the enterprises, especially the SMEs (represent more than 90% of the industrial activities). The Moroccan government insist on the support of the gradual integration of the very small enterprises (creation of a fund of public industrial investment, commitment of the banking sector, creation of linkages between large companies, small and medium enterprises and very small enterprises). In fact, in Morocco, the SME has a significant importance in the economic fabric in which they represent more than 95% company (which is about 70.000 companies) according to statistics from the Federation of SMEs in Morocco –affiliated with the CGEM-. Moreover, it occupies 50% of employees, and realize 51% of domestic investment and constitute the center of the economy with 40% of production and 31% of exports9. However, its participation in the GDP is limited only to about 20% against 60% in some countries. According to MarocPME,

7We

should mention that the CGEM has proposed a range between 175 and 200 MAD to have an approximately common definition to financial institutions. 8Mamoune 9

Bouhdoud is the Moroccan delegate minister for small business and integration of the informal sector The minister of Economy and Finance; Nizar Baraka. On the September 20,2012

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SME are present in all sectors of the Moroccan economy with a rate of 98%: industry, handicrafts, construction, trade and finally services including tourism, and financial services10. In a developing country as Morocco, a balanced economic development is in need of a regional planning policy, which can be achieved with the active participation of SMEs. Moreover, in Morocco, there is a lack attention in the development literature on the issue of small and medium enterprises; the problem of an official definition, the difficulties to get financial refund without getting to the informal finance… Moreover, the distribution of small firms is unequal in Morocco, at both sectorial and geographical levels. Most of SMEs are located in Casablanca (which is considered as the economic capital) and they are concentrated in trading and services. Hence, with a macroeconomic view, this can prove that Moroccan government can be interested more on the SME in the strategic regions such as Casablanca and this can explain the lack of interest to the small and medium enterprises. We should mention in this paper that the economic integration of such businesses in Morocco has become easier than big enterprises after the integration of some organization (such as MarocPME) in order to encourage this category to enhance their production. In fact, this integration will contribute effectively to the development of wealth and power, and improve the living conditions of local populations in the different Moroccan regions. c) Small and medium enterprises: difficulties and constraints In Morocco, the development of small and medium enterprises has been facing many constraints. In first semester of 2013, more than 1.990 Moroccan company were considered as defective firms. The rising number of deficiencies since 2011 is becoming more serious and this trend is likely to continue until 2016. These constraints could be classified into two categories: intrinsic factors of the enterprise and external factors. In the first category, we can list the fragility of the structure of these firms. Moreover, small businesses have lack of technical and financial resources and a lack of managerial human capital, training and skills. This is often seen in Morocco as an under performance of SMEs, a lack of competitiveness and high rate of failure. Concerning the second category, we can list as sources of weakness of SMEs; the lack of a uniform definition of small firms, issues related to financing are also very important and often cited among the first challenges faced in the development of SMEs in Morocco, bureaucracy and tax disadvantage… These challenges make the development of SMEs in Morocco and there development very difficult. Despite of focusing on the innovation as the developed countries do, the developing governments focus more on the survival of these businesses. 3. New way to define Moroccan SME definition: Small and Medium Enterprises are considered to be key players in sustainable development. Their contribution in the economic market add more dynamism and flexibility to the economy. However, these firms contribute to job creation and thereby to combating poverty and inequality and better integration of women into entrepreneurship. Thus, in most of the international and national organization, a number of efforts aim to streamline and harmonize SME definitions (OECD, 2004), although the heterogeneity of SMEs themselves and the nature of the economy they operate in might mean that establishing a global definition is not feasible(Mylenko et al. 2011).

10CDVM,

Financement des PME au Maroc, mai 2011

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In every country, it is important to identify SMEs, for the reason that these firms require assistance more than the other enterprises. In the present work, we should mention that the lack of a common definition could lead to the uneven application of policies and thus distortion competition across the organizations in the economic market. In fact, in Morocco, an enterprise might be eligible for aid for one organization, while for another organization the same enterprise might not be eligible. This problem is due to the absence of a common definition of SMEs, which does not help to avoid competitive distortion. However, the Moroccan economic landscape deserves a unified definition for this sector, which is considered as the backbone of the economic growth, and play a leading role in most of the countries and especially an economically emerging country as Morocco. The numerous constraints and barriers that Moroccan SMEs face especially administratively (such as the access to sources of funding) limit the progress of most of small businesses and this is caused by the lack of the official definition of this category of enterprises. Actually, this problem is become a common one in several countries, developed and developing ones. Hence, numerous studies have discussed that SMEs are more constrained than large firms and are less likely to have governmental support (e.g. access to formal finance and get finance) to develop their businesses(Beck & Demirguc-Kunt 2006). In order to establish the definition of SME, the firm’s size –quantitative criteria (employee’s number, turnover and balance sheet) - was in most cases the main factor to identify the SME. Nevertheless, these criteria are not the only measure that should be taken as. In fact, in many cases and especially in developing countries, a business can be very small by using quantitative criteria, but if we add some criteria like; the sector activity of the firm or if it partnered with a large enterprise, the enterprise might not be eligible for SME status. However, to ensure that only small entrepreneurs are considered as SMEs, an analysis may therefore be required. Looking for a common definition in one country is going to help to improve the effectiveness of small businesses’ policy in the country. Therefore, in the following paragraph, the most important objective is to study how we can check out if an enterprise in a developing country as Morocco can be qualified as an SME. In other words, we will try to find the best way to define an SME in a developing country by taking the Moroccan kingdom as an example. Ratio of size of the enterprise: The main factors determining whether a company is a Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) are the number of employees and the volume of sales. These criteria are probably the most accurate parameters to define SME. In fact, most of financial and statistical institutions may collect this information at the time of evaluating loan applications, but often do not keep it in their systems and as a result they are not able to report lending volumes based on these criteria. Depending on each country, the size of the enterprise can be categorized based on the number of employees, annual sales, assets, or combination of these criteria. Moreover, most of definitions based on of the size of firms varies from one business sector to another 11 . As we mentioned above, in the Moroccan market SME’s definition depend especially on the turnover of the country but this definition still not official in the financial market. However, most of the national and international organization working in and on the Moroccan market have their own definition of these small businesses (other than the 11Bolton

1971 see (Abouzeedan 2011)

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definition presented by the Moroccan government). As we can recognize, the most important part omitted in defining small firms is the sector of activity especially in Morocco. In fact, by introducing some qualitative criteria such as the classification depending on the sector, the SME definition becomes quiet complex for some researchers because of the volatility of the quantitative criteria when we introduce the sectorial dimension (Makhroute et al. 2013). Nevertheless, in our point of view, the introduction of this criterion make the definition of SME more applicable and helpful to do research in the SME sector. Furthermore, the most common criterion to define a small and medium enterprise is the number of employees. Actually, a better tool to make this criterion more adequate to define a SME, it is recommended to define a ratio of the size of the company. This ratio can be expressed as the average of the size criterion (such as the number of employees or the turnover) in each sector of the market; for example in the Moroccan economy we have three crucial sectors; agriculture, industrial and manufacturing. Hence, small firms tend to have greater numbers of employees, while in service sectors, SMEs tend to have fewer employees (Abouzeedan 2011).In statistics, the average is defined as a single number, which represents the idea of a typical value. It can be represented by using one of the following variables: mean median and mode depending on which one is appropriate in our case of study. Besides, our aim in this work is to use a relative way to define the SMEs so we should describe a relative size of firms in relation to sectors they operate. This alternative approach is to talk about smaller firms and larger firms in relative sense (Abouzeedan 2011). In our case, the best way to define this ratio is the mean of workers or turnover in each sector. In addition, since the mean summarizes the properties of a population, this method is the best tool to define small businesses in the Moroccan market. As we know, the mean is defined in a set {𝑋1 , … , 𝑋𝑁 } of values called population as: Mean =(∑𝑁 𝑖=1 𝑋𝑖 )/N The population in this case is considered as the size's criteria- like the workforce, turnover and/or balance sheet). Moreover, the precision of the sector of activity is an important step to add to the definition of SME. Hence, economist and policy makers point out that most of the organization and financial institutions are adapting their definitions of SMEs to the reality of their markets, which generally comprise much smaller firms operating with fewer employees. This prove that there are still differences in the definitions of SMEs across banks and countries, which induce always to some measurement error that must be taken into account when comparing results. This case is preset in the Moroccan market, indeed, the definition adapted by the Moroccan government still not used in most of financial institutions and national or international organizations. This can prove that the definition took is not helpful to policy makers, economists and researchers. Considering these ratios, policy makers and economists can determine specific strategic trajectories in order to put an appropriate definition to small and medium businesses with the purpose to design appropriate support measures. The challenge for the Moroccan government to provide an official definition of small and medium enterprises is the presence of a big part of informal sector in the Moroccan economy. This issue make the estimation of the ratios presented above difficult or might be incomplete due to the lack of information and data, and keep this problem common in Morocco and even around the world. Besides and within the 8

same country, it is not surprising that many researchers in many areas related to the microeconomics have made many efforts to put an official definition to SMEs. Since the last definition adapted in the Moroccan government is based only on the turnover. It is recommended to contextualize the definition to the country’s context by introducing the different sector operating in the Moroccan economy. The economic market in such developing country continue to be supported by agriculture, manufacturing and services. Consequently, we will suppose that we have three primordial sectors in Moroccan economy: primary sector (agriculture sector), secondary sector (industrial sector) and tertiary sector (services). We should mention that in the primary sector most of the businesses are working the informal sector or as cooperation and association that make this sector does not contain enough enterprises and businesses and most of them are considered as large enterprises. Hence, in the following paper, we will suppose that we have only two primordial sectors; industrial sector and services. In this case, we should define a threshold for these two sectors by estimating the mean for the industrial sector and services. As we mentioned above, the most common and used definition of the Small and Medium Enterprises; any company with a turnover is between 10 MDHS and 175 MDHS. In our case, according to statistics published in the report of "Haut Commissariat au Plan" 2013, the number of the industrial enterprises in 2012 is 7968 enterprises with a turnover of 429 733 MDHS. Then; INDUSMean = 429 733/ 7968 = 53,93

(MDHS)

(MDHS)

≈ 54

(MDHS)

Hence, in the industrial sector any company with a ratio between 10 MDHS and 54 MDHS, is considered as a small enterprise and between 54 MDHS and 175 MDHS is considered as medium enterprise. For the sector of services, we suppose that most of the enterprises are touristic establishment. According to the report of "Haut Commissariat au Plan" 2013, in Morocco, we have 194 025enterprises and the revenues generated by none residents who stayed in Morocco excluding international transport were located to nearly 57,2 billion Dirham. SERVMean = 52 700 000 000 / 194 025 = 271 614,48 ≈ 271 615

(Dhs)

Indeed, any company with a ratio less than 271 615 Dhs is considered as small businesses and if it is more than 271 615, 00 Dhs the company is considered as medium enterprise. Conclusion The issues and challenges faced by the Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) continues to increase not only in developed world but also developing one. The main issue facing small and medium enterprises is related to economists and policy makers give a common definition to these firms at least in the same country. Besides, the lack for an international benchmark inhibit most of researchers to make comparisons between different countries. Actually, if each 9

economy has its own definition -with different or same criteria, with different spectrum) then it would be impossible to have a unique definition. Hence, having an official definition of SME in the international level seems impossible and complicated. At the national level, financial institutions and other agencies would require more details (especially financial details) in order to have a unique SME definition. Before 2005, SME definition was only based on employees. Nevertheless, the problems faced by SMEs in their development push organizations and institutions to add more criteria to the SME definition in order to make it more clear and real. Nowadays, it becomes more evident that small businesses have different meaning depending on the criteria used to define the concept. Actually, in a country like Morocco, the definition of SMEs is relative to a given context (a sector, a financial institution…).Many variables were used with the purpose to give a standard definition to SME and one of the most important criteria we were able to add is the ratio of size of enterprise. For further research, another criterion depending on the age of the firm can be introduce to define the SME. This ratio describes the firm maturity and it can be used to define the small and medium enterprise in an economic market. Above all, the use of the quantitative criteria (which is common in most of developed and developing countries) give us, a descriptive definition with a purpose to implement various government program, when the qualitative criteria give as a theoretical and analytical description of entrepreneurship in the country in order to describe the reality of this category in the economic market. May be the idea of a having a definition combining two kinds of criteria (qualitative and quantitative) is going to be helpful and it is going to satisfy the objectives of a diverse panel of stakeholders. References Abouzeedan, A., 2011. SME Performance and Its Relationship to Innovation. Linköpings university. Ayyagari, M., Beck, T. & Demirguc-Kunt, A., 2007. Small and medium enterprises across the globe. Small Business Economics, 29(4), pp.415–434. Balkenhol, B., Dirkes, F. & Gürgöz, Y., 2013. The Potential of Mesofinance for Job Creation in Mediterranean Partner Countries, Bawa, M.I.M. & Gunapalan, S., 2012. Identification of Micro , Small and Medium Entrepreneurial Marketers-MSMEMs-in South Eastern Region -SER- : A qualitative analysis. In Department of Commerce and Economics, ed. National Conference on Innovative Marketing- Trends, Issues and Challenges. India, pp. 114–116. Beck, T. & Demirguc-Kunt, A., 2006. Small and medium-size enterprises: Access to finance as a growth constraint. Journal of Banking and Finance, 30(11), pp.2931–2943. Buyev, V., 1999. A Compilation and Commentary on the Legal and Regulatory Environment for Private Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses in Russia, Centre d’études et de perfectionnement de l'artisanat et des métiers, 1987. Guide de gestion de micro entreprise Économica, ed., Paris. Commission Economique pour L’Afrique, 2016. Profil de pays 2015: Maroc, Available at: http://www.uneca.org/sites/default/files/uploaded-documents/CoM/com2016/CountryProfiles/morocco_profile2015_fre_final.pdf. 10

European Union, 2003. Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003 concerning the definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Official Journal of the European Union, pp.36–41. Ferrier, O., 2002. Les très petites entreprises 1th Editio. D. Boeck, ed., Bruxelle. Available at: https://books.google.co.ma/books?id=qfhf917zJNwC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs _ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. Hamdouch, B., Berrada, A. & Mahmoudi, M., 2004. Dynamisme de la Micro et Petite Entreprise Au Maroc, Available at: https://idlbnc.idrc.ca/dspace/bitstream/123456789/26509/1/125233.pdf. Haut Commissariat au Plan, 2013a. Le Maroc des Regions, Available at: http://www.hcp.ma/file/172932/. Haut Commissariat au Plan, 2013b. Le Maroc des Regions, Heider, C. et al., 2014. The Big Business of Small Enterprises: Evaluation of the World Bank Group Experience With Targeted Support to Small and Medium-size Enterprises, 200612, Available at: ieg.worldbank.org/Data/reports/sme_eval1_0.pdfWorld Bank. Hunt, R.W., 1993. The Evaluation of Small Enterprise Programs and Projects: Issues and Community Development, U.S. Agency for International Development (AID). Makhroute, M. et al., 2013. The Issue of the Definition of Moroccan SMEs and Different Approaches. Journal of US-China Public Administration, 10(5), pp.488–496. MarocPME, P. Available at: http://candidature.marocpme.ma/ [Accessed June 16, 2016]. Marwede, E., 1983. Die Abgrenzungsproblematik mittelständischer Unternehmen — Eine, germany. Meredith, G., 1994. Small Business Management in Australia 4th ed., McGraw Hill. Minister of Industry Trade and Digital Economy, 2014. The new plan of industrial acceleration (2014-2020). Available at: http://www.mcinet.gov.ma/~mcinetgov/en/content/industrial-acceleration-plan-20142020 [Accessed June 16, 2016]. Mukhtar, S.M., 1998. Business Characteristics of Male and Female Small and Medium Enterprises in the UK. Implications for Gender British Journal of Management, 9(1), pp.41–51. Mylenko, N., Saltane, V. & Ardic, O.P., 2011. Small and Medium Enterprises – A CrossCountry Analysis with a New Data Set, Nasr, S. & Pearce, D., 2012. SMEs for Job creation in the arab world: SME access to financial services, OECD, 2004. Promoting Enterpreneurship and Innovation SMEs In A Global Economy: Towards a More Responsible and Inclusive Globalisation. In 2nd OECD CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS RESPONSIBLE FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES (SMEs). Istanbul, pp. 1–59. OECD, 2005. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMES). SME and Entrepreneurship Outlook: 2005, p.17. Available at: https://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=3123 [Accessed June 10, 2016]. 11

Pula, J.S. & Berisha, G., 2015. Defining Small and Medium Enterprises : a critical review. Academic Journal of Business, Administration, Law and Social Science, 1(1), pp.16–28. Available at: www.iipccl.org. Rutashobya, L.K. & Olomi, D.R., 1999. African entrepreneurship and small business development., Scarborough, N., 2012. Effective small business management: An entrepreneurial approach 10th ed. Pearson Education Inc, ed., Prentice Hall. Wynarczyk, P. et al., 1993. Managerial labour markets in small and medium-sized enterprises, London ; Routledge.

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