{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,4]],"date-time":"2025-11-04T23:47:33Z","timestamp":1762300053393,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,28]],"date-time":"2022-04-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1651104000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001871","name":"Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e Tecnologia","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["UID\/MULTI\/00308\/2020","UIDB\/05037\/2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["UID\/MULTI\/00308\/2020","UIDB\/05037\/2020"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001871","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"European Regional Development Fund","award":["POAT-01-6177-FEDER-000044"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["POAT-01-6177-FEDER-000044"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sustainability"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Funds from the European Union that are devoted to fostering a low-carbon economy are aimed at assisting Member States and regions in implementing the required investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and smart distribution electricity grids, and for research and innovation in these areas. In this context, we assessed the implementation of these funds in small and medium-sized enterprises across different beneficiary countries and regions of the European Union. Therefore, this study uses a non-radial slack-based data envelopment analysis model coupled with cluster analysis that covers multiple aspects of evaluation, including two inputs and two outputs, to assess 102 programs from 22 countries. Overall, we were able to ascertain that there are 25 efficient operational programs that remain robustly efficient, whereas 51 remain robustly inefficient for data perturbations of 5 and 10%. Under the current output level, there was almost no input surplus. Therefore, to promote a low-carbon economy, operational program managers should concentrate on solving the problems behind the poor results achieved, both in terms of greenhouse gas emissions reduction and the pace of the programs\u2019 implementation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/su14095317","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,28]],"date-time":"2022-04-28T22:20:06Z","timestamp":1651184406000},"page":"5317","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":12,"title":["How Efficient Is the Cohesion Policy in Supporting Small and Mid-Sized Enterprises in the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy?"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4045-6101","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Carla","family":"Henriques","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Polytechnic of Coimbra, Coimbra Business School Research Centre|Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administra\u00e7\u00e3o de Coimbra (ISCAC), 3045-601 Coimbra, Portugal"},{"name":"Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores de Coimbra (INESCC)\u2014Departamento de Engenharia Electrot\u00e9cnica e de Computadores, University of Coimbra, Polo 2, 3030-290 Coimbra, Portugal"},{"name":"Centre for Business and Economic Research (CeBER), Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, Av Dias da Silva 165, 3004-512 Coimbra, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Clara","family":"Viseu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Polytechnic of Coimbra, Coimbra Business School Research Centre|Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administra\u00e7\u00e3o de Coimbra (ISCAC), 3045-601 Coimbra, Portugal"},{"name":"Centro de Matem\u00e1tica e Aplica\u00e7\u00f5es\u2014Universidade da Beira Interior (CMA-UBI), 6200-001 Covilh\u00e3, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0506-4284","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ant\u00f3nio","family":"Trigo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Polytechnic of Coimbra, Coimbra Business School Research Centre|Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administra\u00e7\u00e3o de Coimbra (ISCAC), 3045-601 Coimbra, Portugal"},{"name":"Algoritmi Research Center, University of Minho, 4800-058 Guimar\u00e3es, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Maria","family":"Gouveia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Polytechnic of Coimbra, Coimbra Business School Research Centre|Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administra\u00e7\u00e3o de Coimbra (ISCAC), 3045-601 Coimbra, Portugal"},{"name":"Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores de Coimbra (INESCC)\u2014Departamento de Engenharia Electrot\u00e9cnica e de Computadores, University of Coimbra, Polo 2, 3030-290 Coimbra, Portugal"},{"name":"Centre for Business and Economic Research (CeBER), Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, Av Dias da Silva 165, 3004-512 Coimbra, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0464-9336","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ana","family":"Amaro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores de Coimbra (INESCC)\u2014Departamento de Engenharia Electrot\u00e9cnica e de Computadores, University of Coimbra, Polo 2, 3030-290 Coimbra, Portugal"},{"name":"Centro de Estudos de Gest\u00e3o do Instituto Superior T\u00e9cnico (CEGIST-IST-UL), 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Levy, C.A. 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