Collecting information

1. Tool B3
See Message 13:
Basic concepts of SMEs
and Message 14:
Basic concepts of
networks and clusters
Case studies –
methodological guidelines of context analysis
Case studies constitute a research strategy, an empirical inquiry in-
vestigating a phenomenon within its real-life context. Case study
research can mean single- and multiple case studies; it may include
quantitative evidence and it always relies on multiple evidence
sources benefiting from prior development of theoretical proposi-
tions (Yin 2002). Rather than using large samples and following a
rigid protocol to examine a limited number of variables, case study
methods involve an in-depth, longitudinal examination of a single
instance or event: a case. They provide a systematic way of looking
at events, collecting data, analysing information, and reporting re-
sults. As a result, the researcher may gain a sharpened understand-
ing of why the instance happened as it did, and what might become
important to look at more extensively in future research. Case stud-
ies lend themselves to both generating and testing hypotheses
(Flyvbjerg 2006).
In the framework of a networking programme fuelled by the Action
Learning approach, a case study supports the facilitator as well as
the community as a whole providing a better understanding of the
overall context in which the networking path will take place; data
collected and analysed in such a case study constitute an empirical
foundation for designing the strategy and the operative planning. In
this case, the facilitator acts as an expert consultant for the institu-
tion or organisation promoting the co-operation or networking path.
Often, in fact, especially in the framework of local policies support-
ing the networking process of SMEs, the territorial actor (the admin-
istrator, the Chamber of Commerce, the Development Agency, etc.)
is the one who acts as a “sponsor”, that is, as the promoter of the
cooperation path. In these cases the facilitator may be required not
only to act as mediator, but also and above all, as a process manager
able to supply strategic and operational orientation for an effective
launching of the networking process framed by competition and co-
operation (co-opetition).
In a territorial context, experimenting for the first time a planned
support action to SME networking through the Action Learning ap-
proach, the ‘sponsor’ organisation is required to answer a series of
key-questions in order to design and launch an effective networking
process:

2. 2/3
• Which sectors or groups of enterprises constitute the target
group for a networking project? How should these enterprises be
approached?
• What guiding idea should be the leitmotiv of the growing net-
work’s aggregation process, the aim of the network?
• Which other stakeholders can sustain such a networking process?
And what roles could they play? Which lessons could be learned
from other ongoing or accomplished networking processes?
• How can the competencies of the local professionals be best val-
orised in order to ensure the availability of a committed group of
facilitators with adequate skills?
In this case, the ‘case study’ is structured as a context analysis able
to better situate the networking path to be launched or supported in
its overall context and, on this basis, to better tailor strategies and
the operative planning. In such a context analysis the main areas of
empirical research could be:
The case study as
context analysis
1. The overall socio-economic characteristics:
e.g. basic data on productive settings (sectors, total companies,
entrepreneurship dynamics, average size, etc.); basic labour
market; main economic performance data; openness to market ;
quality of life; local governance.
2. Local actors:
e.g. public, semi-public and private organisations acting as cata-
lysers or promoters of the SME aggregation or co-opetition proc-
ess. The mapping of relevant local actors helps to identify and
prioritise stakeholders to be involved or with whom to set up a
vanguard.
For public, semi-
public and private
organisations,
see Message 14: Basic
concepts of networks
and clusters
3. Overall programmes/projects supporting the SME aggregation
and co-opetition process:
Mapping and analysing such programme or project resources
helps understanding which is the local overall policy attitude to-
wards the co-operation paths of SMEs and which are, if any, the
key characteristics of the already launched and planned pro-
grammes and projects supporting SMEs and SME co-operation
paths.
4. Pre-selected SME context:
Such a dossier helps gaining a better understanding of the imme-
diate target group of the Action Learning and networking process
chosen to promote and sustain. It supports the analysis of oppor-
tunities for and barriers to co-operation, possibly residing in
competition, such as sectoral features; co-operative path atti-
tudes, learning dynamics.
5. Facilitators:
This information provides data useful for the identification of
possible typologies of facilitators to be involved (professionals/
managers, trainers, etc.), the pre-selection of a possible facilita-
tors’ team and the mapping of their overall competencies.
For mapping
facilitator
competencies:
see Tool B1:
Participant
questionnaire
6. Local competencies in Action Learning methods:
The same type of questionnaire serves for mapping local relevant
centres of know-how concerning their expertise in action meth-
ods. It helps optimising the available competence set to be acti-
vated. In principle, major centres of know how should involve:
training organisations, service centres, universities and R&D cen-
tres.

3. 3/3
Cf. Tool B2:
Semi-standardised
in-depth interviews
Cf. Tool B4:
Focus groups
Cf. Tool D2:
Stakeholder analysis
Cf. Tool A10:
Brainstorming
Cf. Tool D5:
Skill needs analysis
and planning
Such a context analysis should always be handled in a rather flexible
way; it should be customized according to specific requirements, for
example, it could focus on item 4 in cases where the sponsor organi-
sation has already identified the target enterprises and it already
has a network of sensitised key stakeholders with whom it has set up
other paths of co-operation; most of all, it could focus on items 5
and 6, in which warranting a qualified offer worked out by the facili-
tators is the most important requirement.
Along with desk activities for item 1, several of the tools provided in
this book can be used for carrying out the context analysis such as
semi-structured interviews with experts and/or focus groups for
items 2, 3, 4, a stakeholder analysis accomplished through a brain-
storming with the sponsor organisation for item 2, skill needs analy-
sis for item 5.
Go to the book’s
homepageA template for a full context analysis is provided as a download file
at the book’s homepage.