Designing a Policy Model for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Emphasizing on Innovation (Case: Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare)

Abstract: Employment and the achievement of people in the desired job are considered as one of the most basic needs of the society, and the elimination of unemployment as a social, economic and cultural destructive phenomenon is one of the most important concerns of policy makers and planners in different countries. In addition it is and one of the main indicators of development of societies. In most countries, the solution to achieve this is through the provision of the infrastructure needed to set up and run small and medium-sized enterprises. Given the importance of small and medium enterprises in the process of economic and social development of countries and the special attention of planners and development policymakers to this important issue, policy makers need to adopt a policy suitable for the growth and development of small and medium-sized enterprises. However, the policy-making of the aforementioned businesses, from a theoretical perspective, requires an accurate basis to help create an entrepreneurial economy with more entrepreneurs and achieve the goals set by the country. Accordingly, this research aims at designing a policy framework for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, with an emphasis on innovation and making use of domestic and international knowledge and experience to improve the policy process of small and medium-sized enterprises development and its numerous valuable results, especially in terms of employment assistance and unemployment reduction. In this paper, an attempt has been made to construct a proper framework for conducting research based on previous research and documentary studies. Then, based on the initial framework, a deep study and a case study were analyzed using the interviewing tool and study documents to extract the conceptual model. To analyze the extracted data from interviews, open source and axial coding was used. Finally, the resulting pattern in four dimensions was drawn from the effective factors on business development, development policies, policy-making bodies, and the performance of small and medium businesses.