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http://dx.doi.org/10.7545/ajip.2018.7.3.461

Network Cooperation, Innovation, Internationalization and Economic Performance of SMEs: An Exploratory Study  

Singh, Rashmeet (Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Science)
Subrahmanya, MH Bala (Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Science)
Publication Information
Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy / v.7, no.3, 2018 , pp. 461-488 More about this Journal
Abstract
This paper explores the relationship between network cooperation, innovation, internationalization and economic performance of manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of engineering goods industry located in Bangalore city, India. At the outset, it is observed that SMEs receive the maximum assistance in the realm of product specifications. Moreover, they do not resort to manufacturing new products as much as they resort to product modifications or process improvements. Further, it is found (using Chi-square test of independence) that higher the network assistance received from an external network, greater is the innovation performance of SMEs. Subsequently, using analysis of variance (ANOVA), export intensity (proxy for internationalization performance) of SMEs is found to have a significant positive association with both the degree of their network cooperation and of their innovation performance. Lastly, it is observed that higher the degree of each of network cooperation, innovation performance and internationalization performance, better is the economic performance (measured by total sales turnover) of SMEs. These results have significant implications for the policy makers of the country to give due attention to network cooperation, innovation and internationalization as the means of enhancing the economic performance of SMEs.
Keywords
Network cooperation; economic performance; small and medium enterprises (SMEs); internationalization; innovation;
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