Context of co-opetition in SMEs- How SMEs attempt to manage knowledge sharing process?

This article is really interesting, especially different frameworks for better understanding of co-opetition forces; synergy, leverage and negative reverse impact in knowledge sharing among SMEs. Here is a part of conclusion in the article.
Enjoy it!!!

This exploratory research sought to understand the context of co-opetition in SMEs, the role of IS in managing knowledge, how the three co-opetition forces, synergy, leverage, and negative reverse impact, manifest themselves, and how SMEs may attempt to manage the knowledge sharing process. The outcomes demonstrate that co-opetition is an issue for value-added focused SMEs and may become so for others. Coopetition forces do impact on SMEs, though the context is significant. Some SMEs employ tactics to mitigate and exploit these forces through knowledge sharing management, though their efforts are largely unsuccessful. IS plays a part in these tactics.
Managing inter-organisational knowledge processes play a prominent role in sustainable competitive advantage. The game theoretic analysis provides a structure for modelling knowledge sharing under coopetition. The model investigates how SMEs will fare. SMEs need to consider how to make themselves receptive to exchanged knowledge and flexible and responsive enough to gain competitive advantage if this is ephemeral. It may be that knowledge is bundled with other physical assets and that there are pre-requisites for using the knowledge fully. SMEs are knowledge creators, but are poor at knowledge retention. Part of the resolution of this lies in the SMEs' own hands. They need to be proactive in knowledge sharing agreements, to recognise knowledge has value and the value added derived from knowledge exchange. While some SMEs here expect new technology to open up global markets, their collaborations are essentially local. SMEs will be more vulnerable as inter-organisational IS spread and the world gets more information exchange intensive. At minimum, SMEs need to recognise that these forces exist. Recognition is the first step in management, though often the SMEs cannot mitigate the forces, especially from major customers. They may however, be able to gain more value internally from the knowledge they are forced to share. As with many issues in SMEs, the owner-manager attitude is paramount. That most of the knowledge shared by SMEs is explicit, suggests that some management of the sharing process is within the hands of the SMEs.

Do you want to participate in social activities? What can "SME key" do for you?

Mission
To work with SMEs, their federations and other existing support structures to improve understanding and practice of social responsibility, further engage SMEs in responsible business, and exchange good practice across the business community at national and European level.

The SME key is an online support tool designed for use by you as an SME, as well as for SME federations and other representative channels. It is made up of 3 components that together offer you as an SME a flexible way to evaluate and strengthen your current socially responsible activities and practices.

1. The Business Case

• Introduces you to the bigger issues driving and shaping the future of responsible business

• Helps you to make connections between you and your stakeholders
• Clarifies the link between your business imperatives and responsible practices

2. The Guide to assessing your company’s social responsibility takes you step-by step through the process of sketching where you are and charting what you have already achieved. But more importantly, it gives you tips to take this further. The guide focuses on 3 key concepts:

• The triple responsibility of business (economic, social and environmental)

• Relationships with stakeholders

• Consolidating current good practices

3. The Database of SME responsible business practices provides you with social evaluations already produced by users, case studies of SMEs and social responsibility, and links to national and international players, further information and other initiatives.

What are the benefits and drawbacks of working for an SME

Working in SMEs is a controversial issue specially among graduated students. this part is more about the benefits and drawbacks of this issue in the case of UK which I found in prospects.ac.uk and would be hepful for others in other countries as well.

Working for an SME

According to the Shell Step Choose Small Report 2003, ‘SMEs do not offer the structured training programmes that are available to graduates at some of the larger, blue chip organisations’ and, as such, working for an SME can be totally different to working for a larger organisation.

In 2004, The Sunday Times in conjunction with the DTI and the Learning and Skills Council published an inaugural list of the 50 Best Small Companies to Work For – though in practice the firms questioned were of medium size (50-249 employees):

‘In all but one of the 65 questions posed to employees of small and large companies alike, the responses from employees of smaller companies achieved more positive scores. Their defining quality was leadership where 76.3% of employees of small companies gave positive responses as opposed to 72% of those in larger companies.’

The Benefits:

• Since there is less distinction between ‘roles’, a graduate working within an SME will be more likely to get involved in a wider range of activities and will gain a variety of experiences and skills.
• 61.8% of staff in small companies are satisfied with their pay and benefits in comparison to 58.8% of staff in larger companies.
• Motivated and intelligent graduates will have more opportunities to voice their own ideas and will have a greater opportunity to shape company practices and procedures.
• Graduates have more control over their careers – due to the fluid nature of their ‘role’.
• The opportunity to develop roles, which would be seen as ‘non-graduate’ positions in larger graduate recruiters, into a career path that necessitates a higher skill level.
• Early responsibility – individual input will have a visible impact on the performance of the organisation.
• Camaraderie – working as part of a small team, towards a set of shared goals can be extremely rewarding both personally and professionally.
• Flexibility – working hours are often more flexible, though there will be times when you’ll need to be flexible as well.

The Drawbacks:

• Graduates may be recruited into low skill jobs within SMEs – often with little or no reference to their qualifications – choosing underemployment over unemployment due to the lack of traditional ‘graduate level’ opportunities. (Small Business Service, 2002)
• SMEs offer mainly on the job training that is not structured in the way that many graduates would expect. You must be prepared to ‘hit the ground running’.
• Though you may have more control over your career progression, the lack of a formal career path may not suit everyone.
• Starting salaries are often lower than those offered by larger graduate recruiters and benefits such as pension schemes, gym membership or company cars are likely to be reduced.
• Under UK law, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with fewer than 22 employees do not have to recognise trade union affiliations among their workers.
• Just over half the employees in The Times Top 50 Smaller Companies To Work For agreed with the statement 'Most days I feel exhausted when I come home from work', though this may reflect just how hard staff are willing to work and, according to results throughout the survey, this hasn’t impacted negatively on their job satisfaction.

It is important to note that after reading through the possible negatives of working in an SME, The Times found that 49.8% of all employees in SMEs believe they have found their perfect job compared to only 46.3% in larger companies, proving that working for an SME need not be thought of as purely a stopgap option.

Best Practices for Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs)

I realized that these steps are really simple and helpful to be used in SMEs which posted by the Canadian Academy of Engineering.

Best Practices for Small-and Medium-size Enterprises

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The time horizon for small-and medium-size enterprises is short, often measured in months rather than years. Available resources are fully taxed. They are often in the midst of a rapid learning phase through uncharted waters and have few specific plans for training, education or professional development. Since they cannot afford to have their own in-house training departments, they depend heavily on public seminars/short courses offered by universities, associations and private sector providers.

The training or development of people that an SME is prepared to consider arises normally out of the job and current situation, and must be focused rather than generic in nature. The activity must be highly relevant and take the shortest possible time and minimum resources. Finding the needed expertise or source of experience is often a major barrier.

Many of the training options that are easily accessible take too much time, are too expensive, are curriculum and course oriented and do not match the needs of the enterprise.

In spite of these barriers and concerns, some SMEs have developed useful practices that contribute to the lifelong learning accomplishments of their staff, as described below.

Best Practices for Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs)

• Ensure that at least one member of the staff is fully competent and trained in the technical and engineering aspects of the business.

• Plan to invest some time and money in skills and knowledge development.

• When teams are working on projects, enlist their help in sourcing the skills and knowledge required.

• Consciously use some of the resources available in the day-to-day business activities, such as interactions with customers, suppliers, colleagues and industry associations. If questioned and engaged these can be valuable sources of knowledge and skill.

• Ensure that someone attend at least the principal conference or symposium of direct relevance to the venture.

• Have someone attend the trade show of most relevance to the venture.

• After the purchase of equipment or software, ensure that someone attends the training on these new tools and stays connected to the ongoing development of the tools.

• Identify external people who can facilitate or instruct relevant internal tutorials or symposia, or who can assist as consultants in projects.

• Encourage senior experienced people to mentor and help develop younger people and others with potential.

• Identify fast learners in the enterprise and ensure that there are changing roles and other opportunities for them to develop a broader range of relevant skills and knowledge.

• Encourage staff to belong and participate in professional organizations and technical societies.

• Put some emphasis on complementary training areas such as communication, interpersonal and business skills.

• Maintain contact with technical schools, community colleges, regional or municipal economic development officers and IRAP's Industrial Technology Advisors. These contacts will frequently provide an accessible pathway to new technology for smaller firms.

• For the more technology-intensive firms, maintain contact with universities, a major source of new advanced technology.

• Look for opportunities to engage in collaborative technology under-takings, to reduce costs and to broaden exposure to new ideas.