Conclusions

This volume analyses specific issues related to two topics: SME development and SME cluster development in the case of developing countries, in particular Latin America. These two parts are certainly interconnected because they focus on the development of specific local social and economic agents: the SMEs. However, the two parts are also independent from one another, due to their own peculiarities. In fact, Part I (SME development) focuses on the fracture that is arising within several Latin American national production systems between a competitive modern sector and a traditional small-scale enterprise sector. This fracture is based upon the inadequate working of the market, which raises market failures in finance, technology and market access. These badly hit micro and small traditional firms, while not affecting the large national modern companies, which benefit from a wider access to international technology and services. Overall, this fracture is creating problems in the whole development process of these countries. A solution is, therefore, investigated, identified and proposed, especially in the final section of Chapter 3.