Partnerships and innovative patterns in small and medium enterprises

Elena Cefis, Mihaela Ghita and Anna Sabidussi

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 2009, vol. 7, issue 4, 431-445

Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of cooperation agreements as possible drivers of innovative performance for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Drawing on the theoretical paradigm of 'open innovation' and on empirical evidence of the existence of a 'threshold to innovate', we analyse whether partnership agreements act as determinants for the SMEs to cross the innovative threshold or to persist in innovation activities. Our findings suggest that adopting cooperative strategies is beneficial for companies in order to become and/or remain innovators. Distinguishing among size classes, the collaborative advantage seems to be higher for the SMEs: joining forces with other companies, the SMEs can overcome the limits derived from their scarce resources and become active innovators.

Keywords: cooperation; partnerships; iopen innovation; small and medium-sized enterprises; SMEs; probit. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=23360 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijesbu:v:7:y:2009:i:4:p:431-445

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().