Working paper · AFT Global Research

The AFT Framework for EU Market Readiness

A methodology paper on decision-grade SME readiness assessment for the European Union single market

Abstract

The AFT EU Market Readiness Instrument is a decision grade diagnostic framework for small and medium sized enterprises considering entry into the European Union single market. It assesses whether a firm is ready to move towards EU market entry, where its main blockers sit, and what evidence must be produced before resources are committed. The instrument reads readiness across seven independent capabilities, calibrated to sector context through NACE Rev. 2.1. It treats confidence not as a perception score, but as evidence capacity: what a firm can demonstrate within an operationally meaningful window. The assessment resolves to one of three categorical verdicts: Go, Conditional Go or Hold. The methodology operates at the entity level. The same architecture can also be read at cohort level for programme design, prioritisation and monitoring. This paper describes the framework's structure and reasoning. It does not disclose calibration parameters, which remain protected. The instrument assesses readiness and risk. It does not predict commercial success.

Keywords

EU market readiness; SME internationalisation; Decision-grade diagnostic; Evidence-weighted assessment; NACE Rev. 2.1; Single Market preparedness; Operational readiness; Cohort assessment

Suggested citation

@techreport{turgut2026aft,
  author      = {Turgut, Ali-Fuad},
  title       = {The AFT Framework for EU Market Readiness},
  institution = {AFT Global},
  year        = {2026},
  type        = {Working paper},
  doi         = {10.5281/zenodo.20490027},
  url         = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20490027}
}

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence. Calibration parameters and proprietary scoring logic remain protected and are not disclosed in this paper.