Co-Evolutionary Profiles Within Heterogeneous Groups: Case of Malagasy Exporting SMEs
To develop their international operations, SMEs sometimes become permanently involved in groups integrating direct local actors (producers and/or processors) and foreign firms in charge of helping them to access foreign markets. To identify and analyse the profiles that contribute to the co-evolution process of the members of these heterogeneous groups, this research examines the conditions that make it possible to create a common advantage over time while still working toward an individual project. Two complementary cases of groupings associating Malagasy exporting SMEs and foreign firms are studied, in a longitudinal and qualitative way, to understand such a process. Based on an abductive approach, the linking of these cases makes it possible to identify two distinct actor profiles that determine the co-evolutionary potential of the parties involved : behavioural profiles (reactive capacities to cope with the conditions of the external environment) and managerial profiles (proactive attitudes that contribute to impacting the external environment).