Possible Barriers for Expansion and Job Creation : Case Study of Small and Medium Enterprises in Gotland Region, Sweden

Sammanfattning: Small and medium enterprises has attracted a wide argument and debate by scholars and other interest group as to whether they have significant contribution to employment creation or not. Many researchers have taken up to this field of research with different opinion and research finding. This thesis focuses on establishing the barriers to expansion and growth of small and medium enterprises in Gotland region of Sweden. The research focus on interview of business owners and managers in the region, a total of 25 business managers were interviewed and their response used to draw conclusion in this thesis. The research focused on finding out the number of employees in each of the company or business interviewed; reasons for not employing more people in their businesses and possible barriers and difficulties they experience in their business operation. The thesis was able to establish the fact that SME contributes to employment creation in the region and that the number of SME start up in the region is on the increase which has a correlation with increase in employment via SMEs in the region. Furthermore, some factors were identified as major barriers to creation of more jobs by SMEs in the region base on the information elicited from the managers interviewed. Finally, recommendations for future research were made on possible steps the Government can employ to address the problems outlined that inhibit expansion and creation of more jobs by the SME sector in the region.