Managing SMEs’ Collaboration Across Organizational Boundaries Within a Regional Business Ecosystem

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often engage in relationships with external partners that complement their activities in innovating their products and services in order to maintain their market share in a competitive landscape. In this chapter, we present a case that focuses on SMEs’ perspective on managing and organizing intercompany collaboration within a regional business. We explore how purposefully managed mutual knowledge flows across organizational boundaries applied by SMEs contribute to the development of the ecosystem they are immersed in. Our key findings include insights into the advantages offered by being embedded within regional ecosystem boundaries, such as low transaction costs and reduced risks of opportunistic behaviors, environmental opportunities for external knowledge sourcing, or increase of the sphere of influence. We also highlight accompanied challenges, such as low autonomy and control over the partners, and indicate shared issues and responsibilities crucial for further ecosystem development. As a conclusion, we offer a set of recommendations both for managers and policymakers concerning general organizational requirements and governing structures.