Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises' Performance: Network and Absorptive Capacity Perspectives

Abstract

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan, seemingly weak, are in fact competitive within the global environments. Network synergy seems a critical source of Taiwanese SMEs' competitiveness. This paper adopts a meso perspective and develops a multilevel framework to explain Taiwanese SMEs' competitiveness in network settings. In specific, in the network level, network size is proposed to be a determinant of network competitiveness, in the firm level, firms' positions in a network and respective absorptive capacity are proposed to be determinants of SMEs' competitiveness, while network competitiveness also influences SMEs' competitiveness. Research implications and directions for future research are discussed