Fostering effective strategic networks in an emerging economy: the role of public agents' mechanisms

Abstract

This paper discusses assistance from the Brazilian state government that helps entrepreneurial firms establish strategic networks (SNs). The state government developed network planning, organising, and leadership mechanisms to assist the SNs in improving their collective performance. We evaluate to what extent these mechanisms affect firm markets, learning, and cost performance, in turn affecting network effectiveness. We collected data from 55 respondents of 11 SNs. All SNs participated in the state government program and employed mechanisms developed by public agents. Our regression results show that leadership is the intervention instrument that is related to all performance measures, and planning is related to learning and cost performance. Finally, organising is negatively related to cost performance. Our findings indicate that the state government and its representatives can make use of planning and leadership intervention instruments to help improve the performance of entrepreneurial firms working together in SNs.