The value and benefits of networking to innovation, productivity.
'The principal benefits of networking as identified in the literature include,
risk sharing; obtaining access to new markets and technologies; speeding products to
market; pooling complementary skills; safeguarding property rights when complete or
contingent contracts are not possible; and acting as a key vehicle for obtaining access to
external knowledge. The evidence also illustrates that those firms which do not cooperate
and which do not formally or informally exchange knowledge limit their knowledge base
on a long-term basis and ultimately reduce their ability to enter into exchange
relationships.'