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1. Introduction
This is the entrepreneurial age. New and emerging businesses create a very large proportion of innovative products that transform the way we work and live [...]. They generate most of the new jobs (Bygrave, 1997).
Entrepreneurship means entrepreneurs developing new ventures according to personal ideas, including foundations of new companies or new units, and offering new products or services to fulfill entrepreneurial dreams (Shame, 1974; Siropolis, 1989). Against the background of the rapidly changing global economy, enterprises cannot sustain a country's economic growth based solely on their existing resources and products. Enterprises must improve by innovation (Florida, 2007; Tu, 2009), and entrepreneurs are thus playing an increasingly important role in economic development (Acs, 2006; Acs and Amoros, 2008; Christensen et al. , 2010). However, although enterprises have long understood the importance of innovation, they cannot innovate by relying only on their internal resources and capabilities because of changes in scientific and technological development as well as the increasingly globalized marketplace (Kang and Kang, 2010; Tu, 2010). Freel (2000) argues that the requirement for small firms to collaborate, as a means to supplementing and complementing limited internal resources. Past research find external partners within the organization as the source for learning (Purcarea et al. , 2013). Hence, enterprises must cooperate externally, work with suppliers and consumers to improve their operational capabilities, and be more competitive in the market. Research on interorganizational relationships started with Coase's (1937) explanation of the existence of firms, which led to the development of transaction cost economics (Williamson, 1975, 1985). Such interorganizational network relationships encompass various organizational types, for example, manufacturers, customers, suppliers, manufacturers of complementary products, and even competitors that join forces to achieve their predetermined objectives.
Indeed, the management literature increasingly emphasizes that firms can no longer "go it alone" by acting as corporate islands in turbulent competitive waters (Hillebrand and Biemans, 2003). Therefore, management studies consistently advocate cooperation as a means for companies to maintain their competitive edge (Hillebrand and Biemans, 2003).
However, some studies focus only on cooperation within the firm, such as that between the marketing and R&D departments in new product development (Griffin and Hauser, 1996), or investigate cooperation between business functions, such as marketing and purchasing (Williams et al. , 1994). However,...