Place and Structuring Role of Smes in the Network of Innovation Supported by the French Cluster Policy
This paper investigates collaborations implemented by SMEs recurrently taking part to collaborative R&D projects supported by the French cluster policy. We characterize those SMEs and their collaborative patterns based on their respective positions among (but also between) innovative cohesive groups. Thanks to social network analytical methods applied to 549 R&D projects, we show that collaborative SMEs are heterogeneous, yet involved in all the innovative cohesive groups of the network, without playing a decisive role in interconnecting those groups. The diversity of their collaborative logics (coupling different proximities and intermediation activities) however allows them to structure the national innovation network.