Almost three quarters of Scottish mid-sized firms are in favour of staying in Europe, according to a new report.
Support for continued European Union membership is even higher among Scottish companies with revenue of between £10 million and £300m than across the rest of the UK.
In a survey accountancy and advisory firm BDO LLP found that 73% of mid-market firms north of the Border want to stay in Europe under Prime Minister David Cameron’s renegotiated terms.
The level of support when taking in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is 65%.
The number who thought leaving the EU would make it harder to run a successful business was 77% in Scotland and 70% in the rest of the UK.
The 2,000-plus mid-market firms in Scotland employing 440,000 people form a sector important to the UK.
They make up only 1% of all UK companies but create a quarter of all private sector jobs.
They are responsible for around one third of the UK’s total revenue over £1 trillion a year.
Martin Gill, Head of BDO LLP in Scotland, said: “These figures reveal that the Scottish business community is broadly in favour of remaining within the EU.
“These businesses are of a size and scale where they will be more likely to be involved in exporting and developing international markets.
“Consequently they will be keen to keep all doors open for trade.”
An important issue for reforming the EU for these firms was cutting red tape and gold-plating EU legislation so that every new EU regulation sees another one removed.
They also wanted the EU to focus more on improving trade around the world.
Liberalising markets to make it easier to trade across Europe, such as the EU-US trade deal and developing links with high priority markets like India.
With these changes the number of Scottish firms supporting remaining in the EU would rise to 77%.
Mr Gill said: “Our survey clearly finds the EU wanting in many ways.
“Businesses are frustrated by the bureaucracy and any intervention of free trade by the Union is obviously disruptive.
“Most business owners are keen to engage with the EU in any reform, but for others the EU remains unsupportable under any conditions.”
Mr Gill said it was interesting to find that substantial Scottish businesses are keen to maintain membership of the EU albeit with some changes.