IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijeima/v5y2005i1-2p20-38.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Facilitating innovation across SME networks

Author

Listed:
  • Ian Barclay
  • Keith Porter

Abstract

This paper describes the results from a 3-year programme of work to develop five e-business based SME clusters based on 25 independent, diverse SME companies. It shows how the development of a rapid, practical self-assessment for SMEs (based on key business practices) was used to define cluster inhibitors and enablers. The SME clusters were formed to promote innovative approaches to business growth and were based on mutual interests. However, it was found that this new and innovative way of working was hampered by the SMEs within a cluster being at various stages of self-development and core competencies. How the self-assessment tool allowed each SME to measure its own capability in key business practices, is described. The tool was designed to support business growth and new ways of working by assessing best practice in a range of key business activities. This allowed each company in a cluster to define a programme of work that would lead to the convergence of operational activities and key core competencies.

Suggested Citation

  • Ian Barclay & Keith Porter, 2005. "Facilitating innovation across SME networks," International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 5(1/2), pages 20-38.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijeima:v:5:y:2005:i:1/2:p:20-38
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=6335
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Prashantham, Shameen & McNaughton, Rod B., 2006. "Facilitation of links between multinational subsidiaries and SMEs: The Scottish Technology and Collaboration (STAC) initiative," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 447-462, October.
    2. Robbins Peter & O’Gorman Colm, 2016. "Innovation processes: do they help or hinder new product development outcomes in Irish SMEs?," The Irish Journal of Management, Sciendo, vol. 35(1), pages 104-107, April.
    3. Jean-Claude Boldrini & Emmanuel Chené & Nathalie Schieb-Bienfait, 2009. "Improving SMEs' guidance within public innovation supports," Working Papers hal-00423334, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijeima:v:5:y:2005:i:1/2:p:20-38. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=7 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.