Purchasing Problems in Small Enterprises

Abstract

Most businesses are small businesses. The big firms are the big employers (over 80% of manufacturing employees work for firms employing 100 or more) and the big buyers (97% of industrial purchases made by firms employing 100 or more people, and 88% by firms employing 500 or more people).¹ But the small firms are the most numerous, and it is interesting that nearly 5% of the members of the Institute of Purchasing & Supply work for firms with fewer than 100 employees.