Role of SMEs in Worldwide Recovery: a focus on Collaborative Asymmetric Partnerships

This final dissertation aims to investigate the role of formal Collaborative Asymmetric Partnerships for small and medium-sized enterprises. The after-crisis economic scenario has created new challenges to face globalization giving growing importance to new relational networks. Several different strategies have been adopted by SMEs in order to recover from the recession; one excellent example is given by relationships among firms, as a new trend of inter-firm resource management. This thesis focuses on the importance of collaboration and co-creation in Asymmetric Partnerships between firms with evident differences in size, resource portfolio and market position. A Survey and some interviews present the empirical evidence.