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Collaboration as a means to enabling and nourishing innovation is an important theme in the extant literature, which posits that face-to-face interactions lubricate the knowledge flow between actors, and that clusters of complementary knowledge assets provide the necessary infrastructure for this process. What happens to firms that are located outside of urban agglomerations or in peripheral regions? Are they less innovative, or can information and communication technologies (ICT) serve as a proxy for face-to-face collaboration? Theory is polarized in terms of the role that ICT may play in collaborative transactions. For example, network theory explains that weak ties are important in terms of refreshing a firm's innovation capacity by forcing it to include ideas from the periphery. Others argue that ICT cannot supplant face-to-face interaction since it is not an efficient medium for transferring tacit knowledge. This chapter uses data from the Statistics Canada 2003 Survey of Innovation to investigate empirically the relationship between firm location, innovativeness, and the extent of local and more distant collaboration.

Export promotion organisations in a number of countries have initiated programs to broker networks of relationships between small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Their goal is to assist firm growth and promote export activity. However, an explicit framework that explains why public facilitation of inter-firm relationships is necessary, and how economic benefits are derived, is generally absent from both the rationales for these programs and the extant academic literature on export promotion. In this paper we argue that the concept of corporate social capital (CSC) recently advanced by Leenders and his colleagues (Leenders & Gabbay, 1999), along with the broader literature on social capital, provide a relevant framework. The essence of our reasoning is that network-brokering programs attempt to correct failures in the market for relationships between SMEs brought about by the public good nature of CSC. Networking enhances external economies, levering the resources available to firms, and improving opportunities for growth and export expansion. This furthers societal interests in productivity, employment growth, and the expansion of export activity. We illustrate this argument using general findings from the literature on SME networking, and our observations of New Zealand's export promotion programs.

The literature advises managers that under certain conditions developing an entrepreneurial orientation (EO) may lead to superior financial performance. However, little guidance has been forthcoming about how to develop an EO and the impediments that may be encountered. Data collected from senior managers in 120 Canadian firms in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector reveal four sets of capabilities that enhance EO (research, recruiting and retention, building customer relationships, and decision-making processes), and three primary impediments (risk-aversity, complacency, and scarcity of capital or other resources). This study provides practical insight into how firms can develop their EO.

This chapter synthesizes works contained within the volume and paints a picture of where entrepreneurial orientation (EO) research stands today and where it is likely heading in the future. From the necessity for better theorizing and measurement to new directions and context, today’s research into EO is setting the foundation for future research that brings greater understanding to what it means for firms and organizations of all types to be entrepreneurial.