Abstract

CEGARRA-NAVARRO, Juan Gabriel; BRIONES-PENALVER, Antonio Juan  and  ROS-SANCHEZ, María del Mar. Trust is the key to improving cooperation between businesses: an empirical study of SMEs. Cuad. Adm. [online]. 2005, vol.18, n.30, pp.79-98. ISSN 0120-3592.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) usually have wide cooperation networks. High levels of cooperation facilitate the acquisition of knowledge by clients, suppliers and competitors. The objective of this paper is to analyze the influence trust, compromise, knowledge, the management team, and the expected benefits have on three levels of cooperation (suppliers, clients and competitors). The results indicate that whilst expected benefits are the key to moving on to further levels of cooperation, trust is needed. Satistical confirmation of the hypothesis was carried-out using a logistical polytomic regression model, and the data came from 88 SMEs in Murcia, Spain. An additional investigation in other regions, to analyze the interrelation of different forms of IT cooperation in SMEs and large enterprises, could help improve the rigor of the results.

Keywords : cooperation; trust; knowledge; SMEs.

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