Small Business Research Centre seminar: Choose wisely - regional and international collaboration partners of SMEs and their effect on innovative performance

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Time: 1.00pm - 2.00pm
Venue: Room 3024, Kingston Business School, Kingston Hill campus, Kingston Hill, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT2 7LB
Price: free
Speaker(s): Dr. Maksim Belitski (Henley Business School, University of Reading)

All are welcome to join this Small Business Research Seminar, in which we are pleased to host Dr. Maksim Belitski.

Seminar Abstract

While knowledge collaboration on innovation increases innovative performance, it may also vary depending on type of collaboration partner and geographical proximity. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need to look for external collaboration as they have limited resources. For SMEs the most common collaboration partners are customers and suppliers oftentimes from their direct geographical surrounding/entrepreneurship ecosystem. However, is this really the most productive way of increasing the innovative output of SMEs? Would cooperating with international partners, the government, competitors or universities lead to better results? Building on open innovation in the small business management literature, we apply a geographical perspective and develop the model of external knowledge collaboration in SMEs along four geographical dimensions (regionally, nationally, Europe and rest of world) to investigate innovative output measured as product innovation. We use 21,140 observations (19,510 firms) across the most innovative sectors in the United Kingdom (UK) during 2002-2014. We find that a) compared to large firms, SMEs benefit more from collaboration with external partners; b) in terms of collaboration partner type, the highest returns for SMEs are based on collaborations with customers and suppliers (independent of location) c) collaboration within regional and national boundaries is most beneficial for SMEs. 

About the speaker

Dr. Maksim Belitski is an Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Henley Business School, University of Reading, United Kingdom. He is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Development Strategies, Indiana University Bloomington (US). He has worked for University of Bolzano (Italy), Loughborough University, University College London (UK), University of Leicester, University of Economics Bratislava, Belarusian State University. His research interests lie in the area of Entrepreneurship, innovation and regional economics, with a particular focus on Entrepreneurship as a spillover of knowledge and creativity. He is an Editor of Small Business Economics: An Entrepreneurship Journal, E-commerce Journal and Journal of Management Development. 

All welcome!

For further information about this event:

Contact: Hang Do
Email: H.Do@kingston.ac.uk