Since 2018, Dutch small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been among the most productive in the European Union. However, the newly published report Staat van het mkb 2026 shows that productivity growth is flattening and that SMEs struggle to grow into higher size categories. At the same time, an ageing business population is driving a looming succession wave among family firms, while 40 per cent have not yet identified a successor.
Struggling to scale up and innovate
The report, prepared by Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship and Windesheim University of Applied Sciences (Research Group on Family Businesses), shows that SMEs, accounting for 99 per cent of all companies and three quarters of employment in the Netherlands, are finding it difficult to scale up.
Of the micro-enterprises operating in 2014, only 4.7 per cent grew into small businesses over the subsequent ten years. In addition, SMEs lag behind large firms in terms of productivity and the adoption of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI). This is particularly problematic in a persistently tight labour market, where more must be achieved with fewer people, especially if the Netherlands wants to maintain the quality of its education, healthcare and social security.
There is also a sizeable gap within the SME segment itself: the ten per cent most productive SMEs are 6.8 times more productive than the ten per cent least productive.
The problem therefore does not lie with the frontrunners, but with the large group behind them, which faces limited access to appropriate finance and a shortage of renewal capacity and leadership to make that capital pay off. This makes productivity diffusion all the more important: ensuring that innovation and best practices from frontrunners trickle down to the wider peloton.
Urgency around family businesses
Family businesses, numbering more than 295,000, form the heart of Dutch SMEs. They excel in financial resilience and social engagement, but are now approaching a tipping point. Nearly 70 per cent of business owners intend to stop within the next ten years, while more than 40 per cent have no successor in mind or have yet to start the succession process.
The data and insights from Staat van het mkb 2026 provide an important foundation for the recently established Productivity Council, which will advise the Dutch government on targeted measures to safeguard national productivity and prosperity.
- More information
The report, prepared by Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship and Windesheim University of Applied Sciences (Research Group on Family Businesses), can be downloaded here.
For further information or interview requests, please contact David Tieleman of Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship, via +31 (0)10 740 2336 or tieleman@ece.nl.
