Surveys show that the main motivation to engage in entrepreneurship activities in Armenia is of social nature, for example to earn a living or ensure the well-being of the family. More than 83,000 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises operate in the republic, half of them do not even have paid employees. Nevertheless, SMEs have a significant role in the economy of Armenia: they account for 2/3 of the goods and services produced in the non-financial business sector of the economy, more than 70% of employment, and their share in the number of active enterprises in the given sector is 99.8%.
The main problem of enterprises operating in this sector of the economy is low productivity, in particular, the gross added value per hired worker in SMEs is about 25% less than in large enterprises.