Why Don’t Small and Medium Enterprises Innovate More : Creating a Cooperative Learning Environment at Individual, Firm and Regional Level

In a globalising economy, regional or national benchmarks do not suffice any more. Be it technology or business method or practices, Indian small scale entrepreneurs will have to benchmark their current status in this regard with the best in the world. This is not going to be easy. How can innovations help in not only surpassing the existing benchmarks but also creating the new ones? How culture of cooperation can reinforce the capability to compete at the firm and the network level. The classical contribution by Charles Perrow had shown the potential of the idea of cooperation among competing enterprises as a basis of regional revitalization in south Italy and several other parts of the world. [IIMA WP No. 2007-08-03].