Are EU’s Small and Medium-sized Entities familiar with economies of scale? Response from the field

This paper aims at contributing to the topic which focuses on the achievement of economies of scale by Small and Medium-sized Entities. Firstly, we identified the several cost economies, which, according to most of the well-established literatures, determine the economies of scale. Thereafter, the study overcomes the one-way interpretation of the phenomenon at stake, in favour of a distinction in the economies of scale at level I, that can be easily attained by a firm, through the mere growth in size, and economies of scale at level II, to determine if the growth in size is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition. Finally, the information gathered from the study analyses through specially designed questionnaires from a sample of SME (Small and Medium-sized Entities), located in European countries, in order to ascertain the kind of economies of scale gained (if so) by such companies during their productive processes. The survey showed that a high percentage of the SME in the sample, declared to have gained an economies of cost associated with economies of scale at level I; conversely, few companies have realized economies of cost that originated from economies of scale at level II.