Business vs. Non-business Networks: Illustrating the Profile of International, Traditional Manufacturing SMEs

The present chapter analyses the profile of international small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from traditional manufacturing sectors (TMSs). The main contribution consists of illustrating the intensity with which SMEs with the broadest international scope interact with various business and non-business network actors for benchmarking purposes. The results, based on a sample of 120 SMEs, show that bi-regional and global firms interact with multinational companies (MNCs), other value chain firms (e.g., cluster partners) and a range of non-business or institutional agents more intensely than regional-based SMEs. Instead, the intensity of interactions with market agents and competitors is not significantly different between these groups, since these interactions are relatively intense for the entire sample on average. In a subsequent analysis, we find that the key differences are those between regional and bi-regional firms, as well as between regional and global SMEs, whereas differences between bi-regional and global firms are not significant. We conclude that locally rooted interactions and relationships with international partners seem to be distinguishing for TMSs SMEs with an international domain beyond their region, thus serving as a benchmark for other internationalising SMEs.