Driving Factors for Building BusinessNetwork in SMEs : A Comparative Case Study of Cambodia and Finland

Sammanfattning: Authors have identified that there are a number of researches concerning on only individualdriving factor of the business network in the SME, mostly done in a single context. Apartfrom that, there is also a lack of researches focusing on the comparison of the businessnetwork‘s driving factors, especially for SMEs.The purpose of this study is to explore and investigate the driving factors that drive SMEsto engage with the business network by focusing on two different contexts, Cambodia andFinland.The thesis adopts the inductive approach and employs a quantitative research method. Inthis study, the survey questionnaire is chosen to obtain the relevant data. The authors alsoextend the method by including four interviews to have better understanding andinterpretation of the content of the collected data. The primary data are collected through asemi-structured interview with two Cambodian companies and two Finnish companies. Thesource of secondary data such as articles, textbooks, scientific journals and websites arealso used in this thesis.The thesis first concludes that the five chosen factors (obtaining resources, cooperation,internationalisation, cost reduction, and lobbying government policies) play an essentialrole in driving SMEs to take part in the business network. Secondly, the study alsoconfirms that there are some different perceptions on the level of importance of eachdriving factor which the SMEs in Cambodia and Finland conceive that drive them toengage with the business network. Cost reduction factor has been perceived more critical inFinnish context compared to the Cambodian; while in Cambodia SMEs discern thelobbying government policies factor has a higher degree of importance than that in Finland.Lastly, the study has identified the influential aspects of the differences such as the culturalaspect, the definition and size of SMEs, and the private sector development support in thesetwo contexts.For the managerial implications, first partaking in the business networks could providevarious benefits to firms rather than just single aspect. Second, management could decidein which direction they should drive their company by having a better understanding ofSMEs behaviour toward the participation in the business network. Last, different factorscan be crucial to a different kind of SMEs.