ABSTRACT
One of the main obstacles facing small-scale enterprises in developing countries is the very fact that they are small-scale. Horizontal coordination is the process of firms (which can be as small as individual actors) collaborating within a functional node (be it input supplies, production, processing, trading or retailing) to achieve a strategic balance between competition and collaboration. The aim is to collaborate in order to compete more effectively. Competition drives innovation and upgrading, while cooperation helps firms to achieve economies of scale and overcome common constraints to pursue opportunities (Rosenkopf and Almeida, 2003).
