Proposal of a global collaboration index: a tool to monitor collaboration between SMEs using card-based collaborative platforms

Innovation’s future will imply an increasing number of collaborations enhancing the use of open innovation. Resources are volatile and harder to find and retain, thus collaborating became crucial to business survival. Tools for selecting a suitable partner before establishing a partnership are described in the literature. Project success criteria and KPIs are also well documented. In recent years, digital platforms have become increasingly popular for their ability to make collaboration more accessible and promotable. Nevertheless, few tools exist to monitor real-time collaboration between firms. The challenge lies in the incapacity of firms to monitor their collaboration as it unfolds. To address this problem, a global collaboration index was designed. Data came from an experiment involving two manufacturing firms within the aerospace cluster in Quebec, Canada, engaged in collaborative endeavours facilitated by a dedicated platform. Weights were assigned to each component of the index, with a special focus on knowledge exchange and project successes as significant contributors to the development of the global collaboration index. The study spanned 21 weeks, during which an observable asymmetry in collaboration dynamics became evident. The implementation of the Global Collaboration Index empowers two collaborating firms to actively monitor and assess their collaborative efforts in real time. This index allows collaborators to draw conclusions and receive advice on how to improve their collaboration moving forward.