Evaluation of business networks in the AusIndustry business network program. M Bus project

Researchers have found that inter-firm collaboration, that is, co-operative business networks, can provide a competitive advantage that would not be possible independently for small sized firms. Work has been done by some governments, for example, Danish, Norwegian, New Zealand, American and Japanese, in the area of policy and practice of business networks because they have realised the importance of business networking and have encouraged collaboration of small firms by assisting in the facilitation of networks. The Australian government established a Business Network Program which ran for four years and several studies were completed on various aspects of the program during that period. However, there had been no particular research that examined the success or other outcomes of these networks, thus providing the basis for the research question addressed in this research: How and why did the business networks developed in the AusIndustry Business Networks Program, succeed or no