SMEs as Extended Enterprises: A 360-Degree Model for Profiling SMEs Stakeholder Involvement in R&D

This study increases knowledge on SMEs as extended enterprises, particularly from the viewpoint of stakeholder involvement in firms’ R&D activity. Previous research holds that stakeholder involvement benefits firms’ R&D performance, but tends to approach stakeholder involvement by focusing on one or two stakeholder groups at a time. This paper explores the roles and intensity of involvement of different stakeholders in the R&D processes of SMEs and presents a 360-degree model based on prior research to empirically profile the SMEs to see where their gaps in the stakeholder potential are. The study was conducted with multiple qualitative case studies and contributes to the debates on SMEs’ R&D processes and stakeholder perspective on business. This research offers a synthetizing view of the involvement of different stakeholders’ in R&D, an approach that enables to consider SMEs as extended enterprises.