The strategic relevance of relational ties in business collaboration: empirical evidence from a networking organisation

Purpose Networking groups have proven to be effective in improving organisational tools, inter-organisational recognition and the acquisition of new knowledge. Especially in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), these practices significantly increase their performance and their presence in the market where they operate. From a social network perspective, this study aims to analyse how affective commitments between members of a group are affected by the existence of strong or weak ties in SMEs belonging to these sharing groups. Design/methodology/approach To this end, an exploratory case study was carried out with interviews within 11 SMEs belonging to networking groups. The interviews were analysed using the methodology of Miles and Huberman (1984) and Gioia et al. (2013). Initially, a first-order analysis of the results was carried out, where it was possible to create categories according to the information provided by the interviewees. Findings The results made it possible to create an integrative framework in which the main motivations for SMEs to join these groups were identified, as well as the phenomena associated with social ties, the strategies for managing and transforming them and the challenges involved in building them. Practical implications This study seeks to contribute to the advancement of the social network perspective and it shows the importance of purposefully building a strategy to increase social capital in networking groups, to increase the practice of reciprocity and knowledge sharing in the SMEs context. Originality/value In this study, a new and innovative integrative framework is proposed about social ties in the business collaboration context.