Bridging organizations to foster innovation in Small and Medium Enterprises: the role of Technology Broker

Purpose – Many studies emphasize the importance of technology brokers in fostering innovation in small and medium enterprises. Despite this acknowledged relevance, the literature does not supply a clear vision of the key activities that characterise the intervention of such intermediaries. This paper aims to identify the key brokers’ activities and their overall process of intervention to clarify the role of technology broker in fostering innovation in Small and Medium Enterprises. Design/methodology/approach – The research process was based on in-depth theoretical and empirical investigations. Firstly, using an approach that combined elements of systematic literature review with focus group meetings, we identified a research framework synthesizing the key activities that characterize the brokers’ intervention. Subsequent, to get a closer insight into brokers’ role, we investigated empirically the activities and intervention process of six bridging institutions. Originality/value – Reviewing literature, we developed a research framework showing the groups of activities the brokers could carry out to support innovation in SMEs. The empirical analysis of the six heterogeneous bridging organizations provides an overview of the brokers’ activities and highlights the presence of different possible level of interventions. Merging theoretical and empirical evidences, the paper synthetizes the overall process of intervention of technology brokers and the presence of three main brokers’ roles, namely networking role, integration role and absorptive role. Practical implications – The identified research framework and the three brokers’ role could be useful to investigate empirically the brokerage institutions operating in the national and international context.