Investigating the Collaboration Network among SME's bdsed on SNA Theory

Abstract

Context and purpose. Competition could have succeeded in performance and profitability through competitive advantages formerly, due to product/service performance, but today the competitive advantage has become a necessity and businesses are using of the collaboration network as an advantage. Therefore, the research seeks to investigate collaboration networks at the level of SME's companies located in Ahvaz.Methodology/approach. The social network analysis method is used. Cooperation data of companies, organizations and research centers is collected through conducting semi-structured interviews with 41 CEO. Cooperation analysis has done in detailed at distribution, marketing, R&D, production, and finance level to understand network opportunities better than usual.Findings and conclusions. The results show that despite the need to pay attention to cooperation between SME's, does not have a favorable situation. Collaboration network members are dependent on prominent actors who influence how firms interact. This situation threatens businesses weather in the short term or in the medium term. Therefore, it is better to examine and study scenarios and strategies to reduce dependence according to the dimensions of the collaboration network.Originality. Despite the importance of Social Network Analysis (SNA) method, studies conducted with this method are not significant. There is some studies which assessed the factors affecting collaboration network development. Therefore, the study seeks to expand its scope to the business level using this approach.

Keywords

• collaboration
• sme's
• networking
• centrality
• closeness