Graph-based models to classify effective collaboration in SME networks

Dario Antonelli, Giulia Bruno, Teresa Taurino and Agostino Villa

International Journal of Production Research, 2015, vol. 53, issue 20, 6198-6209

Abstract: During the last decades, globalisation of goods’ markets and large disequilibrium amongst labour markets in different countries had a remarkable impact on small and medium enterprises – SMEs, which have been for many years the actual engine of industrial development in Europe. An ‘antidote’ to this crisis is the development of more profitable SME networks in the forms of either ‘clusters’, ‘competitiveness poles’, ‘industrial districts’ or ‘scientific parks’. A more strategic approach is needed, that builds upon existing SME aggregations and explores their main strong and weak points, such as to establish a framework for new innovative networks. The goal of this study is to offer a method to analyse the main features of existing SME networks, in order to offer to the network coordination/management committees some key parameters (KP) to evaluate the network composition and potentially to select networks modifications. The study analyses an archive of industrial networks provided by the European project CODESNET and defines different types of networks and their main KP. A further result of the analysis will be the modelling of each network type in terms of a specific graph. Graphs give a more intuitive representation of the network and an easier comprehension of its organisation. In a second stage, by a probabilistic approach, the authors propose an identification procedure to classify existing and new networks.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00207543.2015.1038368 (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:taf:tprsxx:v:53:y:2015:i:20:p:6198-6209

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/TPRS20

DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2015.1038368

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Production Research is currently edited by Professor A. Dolgui

More articles in International Journal of Production Research from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().