Governments increasingly realize that the growth of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) accounts for a large portion of net employment gain. The knowledge society has created an environment in which technology-based SMEs are an increasingly large part of this job creation and skills development mix. In this paper, we take a preliminary look at the effect of government policy on SME development and technical SME development in four countries. We make policy comparisons in light of national need levels, based on the argument that Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a suitable means of determining level of need and required levels of sophistication in government policy and leadership. We begin the development of a framework for evaluating and effecting government policy, commensurate with the level of national need This framework is targeted at spurring technical SME growth, but will be sufficiently versatile in light of variable national need levels.
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