According to an AMI study, rising operational costs, insufficient access to capital and growing competition is forcing many SMBs to re-evaluate their competitive strengths.

In the emerging markets, lack of access to capital is a major concern, as in the mature markets.

"While firms in mature markets are more concerned with satisfying their current revenue forecasts, SMBs in emerging markets - such as India in particular - are finding it difficult to obtain the necessary capital to grow their operations," claims Spencer Richardson, AMI analyst. "This leads to delays in the launch of new products and services, since cost control often takes the form of curtailed development efforts."

In the newly industrialised markets (NIM) in south-east Asia, getting access to market intelligence and information is the greatest hitch.

"SMBs in NIM are faced with a very real issue; their basic infrastructure deficit disables much of their ability to communicate with the outside world. SMBs in mature markets are taking giant strides in business operations while SMBs in the NIM regions are struggling just to catch up."

SMBs rate uncertain economic environment and insufficient access to capital as the top two concerns, across mature markets like US, UK and Japan.