SME Network Taxonomy: A Qualitative Study of Network Practice in the EU

摘要

The organizing of resources and inter-firm collaboration according to a network paradigm is highly emergent. This paper presents the results of an investigation aimed at describing a generic taxonomy of network practice among European Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME's). From data collected through a pan-European two-folded investigation enveloping 49 interview- and 121 questionnaire-respondents, three generic network profiles are identified ("Supply-chain Co-operative networks" (SCN), "R&D Cooperative Networks" (RCN) and "Business Co-operative Networks" (BCN)).