Networking : small firm's gate to competitiveness

• Innovation process has been widely studied in the business environments and it is really important to the competitiveness and survival of firms. Besides, in a global context, where product innovation has become increasingly more challenging, SMEs are even more dependent on external resources because the process of NPD is becoming more complex. In this context, networking has been considered as an alternative and potentially complementary solution that could help SMEs to overcome their innovation problems. Even when networking can be viewed from several perspectives, this study focuses on two important aspects: the networking capability and the network configuration. Our main purpose is to examine how both variables influence small firm innovativeness and firm performance. The analysis is based on 291 small Swedish firms. The results show that network configuration is influence positively firm innovativeness, and that NC has a strong positive impact on innovation and firm performance.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Annan teknik -- Övrig annan teknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Other Engineering and Technologies -- Other Engineering and Technologies not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

fasteass

Entreprenörskap och innovation

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Centre - The Faste Laboratory

Centrumbildning - Fastelaboratoriet

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)