Analysis of the familiarity and mutual dependency of firms from the perspective of SME CINs´ effectiveness

The main objective of this study is to define the core attributes that influence the member firms of small and medium enterprise collaborative innovation networks (SME CINs) to join collaborative research and development (R&D) projects provided by the inter-firm networking of SMEs in technology-intensive clustering assistance (TICA) projects. We used social network analysis, resource dependence theory, and transaction cost analysis to select the attributes of firms and a rough sets approach to mine rules that explain whether firms join collaborative projects. Especially, this study utilized a rough sets model and identified the core attributes. The familiarity and connections that members share with one another are found to be the core attributes of members in SME CINs that push them to join collaborative innovation activities. Further, the existence of relationships among SMEs is more important than the strength of the relationships themselves.