The market situation of the European countries is almost identical: More than
95% of the companies are SMEs. SMEs in the European Union employ more
than 60% of all employees [ASME 2006, CHSME 2006]. Also the OECD SME
Outlook shows a similar situation [OECD 2006]. There are many qualitative and
quantitative definitions of SME. For this paper, the definition of the European
Council is used: (1) micro enterprises are companies with less than 10 employees
and an annual turnover less than 2 Mio. EURO or a total asset of less
than 2 Mio. EURO, (2) small enterprises are companies with less than 50
employees and an annual turnover less than 10 Mio. EURO or a total asset of
less than 10 Mio. EURO and (3) middle enterprises are companies with less
than 250 employees and an annual turnover less than 50 Mio. EURO or a total
asset of less than 43 Mio. EURO. For this work SMEs are defined by the number
of employees less than 250 employees because it is often not possible to find
out the other data. Earlier research was done in the area of finding out the key
knowledge processes for SMEs which are shown in figure 1. This four knowledge
processes are the most important for SMEs [Fink and Ploder 2007].