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INNOVATION NETWORKS IN EUROPEAN SMALL BUSINESSES

Sherry Robinson, Penn State University/Buskerud University College Hans Anton Stubberud, Buskerud University College
ABSTRACT Networks are becoming increasingly important for small businesses that wish to engage in innovative projects. Although a small firms own resources may be limited, a company can leverage the resources of other firms through the sharing of ideas, resources and capabilities. Strong ties with customers, suppliers, and other firms may facilitate revenue growth and exchange of tie shared systems because these parties are typically more readily available for cooperating in information transfer and joint problem-solving. This study examines the innovation partnerships engaged in by European small businesses through analysis of by data from the Eurostat Community Innovation survey, which included information about small businesses relationships with customers/clients, suppliers, universities, government institutions and private R&D organizations. INTRODUCTION Networks are becoming increasingly important for creating value in entrepreneurial firms as they provide firms with access to markets, information, technology, and other resources (Birley, 1985; Dussauge, Garrette & Mitchell, 2000; Farr-Wharton & Brunetto, 2007; Gnyawali & Madhavan, 2001; Gulati, Nohria & Zaheer, 2000; Hitt & Ireland, 2002; Hoang & Antoncic, 2003; Taylor & Thorpe, 2004). This enables firms to innovate and compete in markets without first owning all of the resources necessary to do so, which is particularly important to new firms with limited resources (Dubini & Aldrich, 1991). This study examines the cooperative partnerships engaged in by small businesses by analyzing data from the 2008 Eurostat Community Innovation survey, which asked about cooperative partners such as customers/clients, suppliers, universities, government institutions and private R&D organizations. The following section provides a background on the importance of networks to innovation. The results of this study are them presented. NETWORKS, INNOVATION AND SMALL BUSINESSES SMEs face significant hurdles in their attempts to innovate because their small size and limited resources present numerous challenges. According to Eurostat (2009), larger companies are more likely than SMEs to control the resources necessary for innovation, including human and financial capital. One potential solution for small businesses that want to innovate but do not
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have the necessary resources and capabilities is cooperation with other organizations (Birley, 1985; Farr-Wharton & Brunetto, 2007; Gnyawali & Madhavan, 2001; Gulati at al., 2000; Hoang & Antoncic, 2003; Taylor & Thorpe, 2004). Empirical studies suggest networks have a strong influence on successful innovation because they influence access to information and knowledge acquisition (Fosfuri & Tribo, 2008; Granovetter, 1973; Hoang & Antoncic, 2003; Liao, Fei & Chen, 2007; Liao, Wu, Hu, & Tsuei, 2009; Miller & Besser, 2005; Murovec & Prodan, 2009). In fact, innovation itself is said to be a social process regardless of business size (Australian Institute for Commercialisation, 2011; Charan & Lafley, 2008). Perhaps because of the sharing of resources, collaboration has been shown to be related to innovation success. A study of Australian businesses showed that collaboration was related to a 70% increase in the chances for creative innovation (Australian Institute for Commercialisation, 2011). Cooperation with other firms in the value chain is very common and often said to be one of the most beneficial forms of collaboration (Aldrich, Reese, & Dubini, 1989; Australian Institute for Commercialisation, 2011; Birley, 1985; Dollinger, 1985; FarrWharton & Brunetto, 2007; Granovetter, 1973, 1982; Gulati et al., 2000; Hoang & Antoncic, 2003; Madsen, 2007; Robinson & Stubberud, 2011; Teece, 1986; Uzzi, 1997). Liao, Welsh and Stoica (2003) note that the most important knowledge is likely to come from customers and competitors, and previous research has shown that new product development tends to be more successful when customer needs are clearly defined (Campbell & Cooper, 1999; Lukas & Ferrell, 2000; Mavondo, Chimhanzi & Stewart, 2005). Overall, innovative firms have been found to be significantly more networked with customers and with universities than the average firm (Fisher, Polt & Vonortas, 2009). Although small businesses dominate the economic landscape in most countries, they also are the most likely to face difficulties in innovating on their own. Cooperating with partners is one way that SMEs can engage in innovation despite their limited resources. The following section presents the methodology and results of this study on the partners most often used by small businesses for innovation. METHODOLOGY, RESULTS AND ANALYSIS This study analyzes data from the Eurostat Community Innovation 2008 survey (Eurostat, 2011) to examine the cooperative partners used by small businesses (10-49 employees). Data regarding a variety of innovative activities during the 2006-2008 time period were collected. The survey included the 27 EU Member States, plus Iceland and Norway, but this study concentrates on the 8 countries for which complete data were available. Only those firms that had been engaged in innovation activities are included in this study. According to Eurostat (2011), innovation activity includes the introduction of new or significantly improved goods or services or processes based on new technological developments, new combinations of technologies that already exist, or new ways of utilizing other knowledge acquired by the enterprise. Organizational and marketing innovation is also included. Enterprises that have abandoned or delayed innovation activities are included as innovators.

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Table 1 presents the data showing the number of small firms that had engaged in technological cooperation for innovation during 2005-2008. Table 2 presents the percentage of the firms included in Table 1 that had cooperated with particular partners. Therefore, Table 2 refers to those companies that stated they had engaged in cooperation for innovation.
Country France Netherlands Austria Poland Czech Republic Germany Spain Italy Table 1: Firms Engaged in Innovation Cooperation (Eurostat, 2011) Number of small firms % of small firms engaged in cooperation for innovation 6 606 38.2% 2 333 34.8% 1 420 32.1% 1 619 29.5% 1 524 25.1% 9 676 17.0% 2 930 14.7% 5 529 13.1%

Table 2 shows the percentages of small businesses that cooperated with various partners, including suppliers (suppliers of equipment, materials, components or software), customers (customers or clients), universities (universities or other higher education institutions), within their own group (other enterprises within your own enterprise group), competitors (competitors or other enterprises of the same sector), consultants (consultants, commercial labs, or private R&D institutes), and government (government or public research institutes).
Table 2: Partners For Innovation Customers Univ. Own group Competitors 52.1 21.0 12.1 32.1 58.1 29.8 29.4 29.3 64.5 38.4 30.1 44.4 33.4 24.9 11.1 32.7 42.9 24.7 37.3 23.4 40.3 41.6 31.9 25.7 24.2 26.9 13.3 17.8 56.8 48.0 34.4 25.5

Country Poland Netherlands Czech Republic Italy France Austria Spain Germany

Suppliers 81.8 76.0 71.1 57.8 56.5 52.1 43.6 32.9

Consultants 23.7 32.0 37.9 41.7 24.8 31.1 21.4 31.4

Govt 20.2 22.7 21.2 7.5 18.1 13.3 31.2 17.5

Suppliers were consistently the most commonly cited cooperative partner for innovation across countries, with only Germany ranking customers, rather than suppliers, first. Customers were the second-most popular partner for five of the countries. Customers were third for Italy, where consultants were popular with 41.7% cooperating with them, and third for Austria, where universities partnered with 41.6% of the small businesses engaged in innovation. In France, other enterprises in ones own enterprise group ranked third with 37.3%, suggesting that small businesses involved in innovation there were part of larger groups. Overall, there were trends that were common over most countries, such as the popularity of suppliers and suppliers as partners, but no single partner was cited at a high level by all countries. The highest lows were seen in the proportions of small businesses that used suppliers and customers. For example, while suppliers ranked fourth in Germany, 32.9% of small businesses cited using them as a
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partner. This was higher than the largest proportion partnering with government, which was found in Spain (31.2%). CONCLUSIONS The results of this study show that most businesses that are engaged in innovation cooperate with at least one partner in some way. Overall, suppliers and customers were the most frequently named partners for cooperation, consistent with studies by the Australian Institute for Commercialisation (2001). It is logical for suppliers to cooperate in innovation because they are likely to directly or indirectly benefit from sales related to any innovations that come about as a result of the partnership. Customers are also logical partners because they benefit from innovations as their needs are met in a better way (von Hippel, 1988). In fact, the development of improved products and services that attract customers and meet their needs is often the goal for innovation (Charan & Lafley, 2008; Liao et al., 2009). Organizations that seek to increase innovation in small businesses might find it productive to help them by discovering and cooperating with external sources, especially those in their current supply chain. If SMEs do not understand the benefits of cooperation, or have difficulty finding appropriate partners, these issues could be dealt with, possibly leading to greater innovation for these companies. REFERENCES
Aldrich, H., Reese, P.R., & Dubini, P. (1989). Women on the verge of a breakthrough: Networking among entrepreneurs in the United States and Italy. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 1, 339-356. Australian Institute for Commercialisation. (2011). Innovation Toolbox. < http://www.innovationtoolbox.com.au> Accessed Feb. 14, 2011. Birley, S. (1985). The role of networks in the entrepreneurial process. Journal of Business Venturing, 1, 107-117. Campbell, A.J. & Cooper, R.G. (1999). Do customer partnerships improve new product success rates? Industrial Marketing Management, 28, 507-519. Charan, R. & Lafley, A.G.. (2008). Why innovation matters. Fast Company. 30 May. <http://www.fastcompany.com/node/874798/print> Accessed Feb 14., 2011. Cooper, R.G. (1993). Winning at new products. Reading, MA: Addision-Wesley. Dollinger, M., 1985. Environmental contacts and financial performance of the small firm. Journal of Small Business Management 23, 2430. Dubini, P., & Aldrich, H. E. (1991). Personal and extended networks are central to entrepreneurial process. Journal of Business Venturing 6, 305313. Dussauge, P., Garrette, B., & Mitchell, W. (2000). Learning from competing partners: Outcomes and durations of scale and link alliances in Europe, North America and Asia. Strategic Management Journal, 21(2), 99-126. Eurostat. 2009. Epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu. Accessed 4.December 2009. Farr-Wharton, R. & Brunetto, Y. (2007). Women entrepreneurs, opportunity recognition and government-sponsored business networks: A social capital perspective. Women in Management Review, 22(3), 187-207. Fisher, R., Polt, W, & Vonortas, N. (2009). The impact of publicly funded research on innovation: An analysis of European Framework Programmes for Research and Development. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Granovetter, M. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78, 1360-1380. Proceedings of Academy of Studies in International Business, Volume 12, Number 2, 2012

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Gulati R., Nohria N., & Zaheer A. (2000). Strategic networks. Strategic Management Journal, 21(3), 203215. Hitt, M. A., & Ireland, R. D. (2002). The essence of strategic leadership: Managing human and social capital. Journal of Leadership and Organization Studies, 9(1), 314. Hoang, H., & Antoncic, B. (2003). Network-based research in entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing 18 (2), 165187. Liao, J., Welsh, H., & Stoica, M. (2003). Organizational absorptive capacity and firm responsiveness: An empirical investigation of growth-oriented firms. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Autumn, 63-85. Liao, Shu-Hsien, Chi-Chuan Wu, Da-Chian Hu, & Guange An Tsuei. (2009). Knowledge acquisition, absorptive capacity, and innovation capability: an empirical study of Taiwans knowledge-intensive industries. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, 53, 160-167. Liao, Shu-Hsien, Wu-Chen, Fei, & Chen, Chih-Chiang. (2007). Knowledge sharing, absorptive capacity, and innovation capability: an empirical stury of Taiwans knowledge-intensive industries. Journal of Information Science, 33 (3), 340-359. Lukas, B.A. & Ferrell, O.C. (2000). The effect of market orientation on product innovation. Academy of Marketing Science Journal, 28(2), 239-247. Mavondo, F. T., Chimhanzi, J., & J. Stewart. (2005). Learning orientation and market orientation, relationship with innovation, human resources practices and performance. European Journal of Marketing, 39(11/12), 12351263. Miller, Nancy J. & Besser, Terry L. (2005). Exploring decision strategies evaluations and performance by networked. Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship,10,167-186 Murovec, N., & Prodan, I. (2009). Absorptive capacity, its determinants, and influence on innovation output: Crosscultural validation of the structural model. Technovation, doi:10.1016/j.technovation.2009.05.010 Robinson, S. & Stubberud, H.A. (2012). Issues in innovation for Norwegian SMEs. Journal of International Business Research, 11(1), 53-61. Robinson, S. & Stubberud, H.A. (2011). Source of information and cooperation for innovation in Norway. Journal of International Business Research, 10(2), 79-90. Taylor, D.W. & Thorpe, R. (2004). Entrepreneurial learning: A process of co-participation. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development,11(2), 203-211. Teece, D, Pisano, G. & Shuen, A. (1997). Dynamic capabilities and strategic management. Strategic Management Journal, 18, 509-533. Uzzi, B. (1997). Social structures and competition in interfirm networks: The paradox of embeddedness. Administrative Science Quarterly, 4235-67.

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