Welcome to SME Survey

SME Survey is the original representative survey of small, medium and micro enterprises (SMEs) in South Africa.

Since 2003, SME Survey conducts South Africa's original and largest annual study of the impact of business factors on the competitiveness and success of SMEs. Each year a focus area is identified and developed into a core research question or hypothesis. The findings are then published in a report that is made available to clients, while headline findings and executive summaries are made publicly available.

Year-on-year findings are based on 1,400 telephonic interviews with a randomly selected sample of decision-makers at South African SMEs, consisting of companies across all vertical sectors with 2 to 200 staff.

Government is pushing strongly for the embrace of the fourth industrial revolution. However, it is not only vaguely defined, but also out of reach for small and medium businesses. SME Survey 2020 will explore SMEs' readiness for using the key technologies that are believe to underlie 4IR, namely artificial intelligence, robotics, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, 3D printing, virtual and augmented reality, big data, blockchain, digital money, and voice-as-interface. In tandem with this focus, we will also explore the impact of South Africa's structural challenges, namely loadshedding/power shortages, and slow economic growth, on the ability of SMEs to remain competitive. These will also be correlated with the 4IR technologies to see to what extent such challenges will hold back 4IR among SMEs. In summary, SME Survey 2020 will examine whether the South African SME is future-ready.

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Now available; download Executive Summary here