Author Description

The proliferation of inter-firm partnerships in the past few decades has raised expectations of accelerated growth and opportunities for developing countries in their efforts to catch up. However, data on formal partnerships show that the vast majority of them involve participants from developed countries. This paper addresses the relatively slow trickling down of formal partnering to the majority of firms in developing countries and argues the need for government strategies and policy intervention. It also explores informal partnering through networks and clusters as an alternative way for many developing country firms to acquire competitiveness and to meet the minimum prerequisites in terms of capabilities in order to graduate to formal partnership.