Virtual enterprise in SME networks

The radical changes that have occurred in the competitive scenario in recent years have driven local network of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to seek new development pathways able to cope with the growing complexity of the business environment and ensure access to new sources of competitive advantage (Guerrieri and Pietrobelli, 2004). The recent literature and business practice have shown that local network of SMEs are seeking new forms of collaborative relationships with a high degree of decisional and operational flexibility in order to satisfy the customer demand faster and at lower cost (Chiarvesio et al., 2004). One of these emerging organisational forms is the Virtual Enterprise (VE). Despite the literature devoted an increasing interest towards this organisational form, there are a number of issues that needs to be clarified and further investigated such as: 1.it is still not clear if the VE model may be considered a possible response to the greater complexity and instability characterising the today business environment; 2.despite a number of definitions of VE have been suggested, it is not clear whether VE assumes single or different type of models; 3.although the existing empirical studies are mainly focused on traditional forms of collaboration among firms (such as supply chain and industrial districts), the evolutionary paths that allow firms to move from traditional models toward the VE model have not been fully explored and documented; 4.finally, despite the vast literature dealing with this topic, there is little empirical research investigating VE examples. In this context, two are the main aims of this paper: 1.to ascertain if it is possible to identify a single VE model or a framework that includes multiple VE models through the analysis of recent literature; 2.to fill the existing empirical research gap through a field analysis focused on a network of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The specific objective of this work is to analyse the evolutionary path of a high-tech SMEs network located in the eastern area of Naples and to assess if this network is evolving towards the VE model. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey has been carried out.