Welcome to EUC2C.COM. Even though business collaboration has often been recognised as beneficial for small SMEs it has been found out that 70% of all the collaboration projects fail.
Mostly, this is due to various barriers that companies encounter, not knowing how to overcome them. It could be that SMEs have more limited financial and human resources, and therefore, they are also less ready to access relevant information and account for shorter time horizons. In addition, they are generally more risk averse and reluctant to engage outside help, except for very specific short-time needs.
The first reason why the majority of SMEs do not take full advantage of networking opportunities is their lack of motivation to do so. Welcome to euc2c.com. 1.6 University/SME collaboration. Universities and research centres can help form so-called systems and networks of innovation.
SMEs collaborate with systems of innovation on regional, national or even international levels, dependant on their knowledge and competence needs. SMEs that innovate through science-driven R&D (e.g. in biotech) tend to collaborate with partners across the world in search for new and unique knowledge. Statistics / OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard / 2011 / International collaboration on innovation. Collaboration with foreign partners can play an important role in the innovation process by allowing firms to gain access to a broader pool of resources and knowledge at lower cost and to share the risks.
It can take a variety of forms and levels of interaction ranging from simple one-way information flows to highly interactive and formal arrangements. Collaboration rates vary widely across countries. Article: Working together. Www.i-n-w.org/talking_collaboration/PwCLU.pdf. Coventry University - I-UEN.