ARE DIFFERENCES IN GENDER, EDUCATION, WORK EXPERIENCE, AND POSITION RELEVANT FOR STRATEGIC NETWORKING PROCESS AMONG SLOVENIAN SMES?

In today's interconnected world networking is a contemporary research topic mainly aimed at analyzing the performance of various market players, very often small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Due to a lack of resources, both tangible and intangible ones, SMEs are unable to operate and achieve significant business performance without engaging in and building some form of strategic network relationships. There are various antecedents of forming these kinds of long-term oriented relationships, however, literature mainly focuses on commitment, trust, reputation, communication, and cooperation as antecedents of strategic networking. Since these antecedents are to some extent dependent on personal traits and background characteristics of actors engaged in networking activities, it is interesting to examine the nature of the relationship between such personal traits and strategic networking. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate how differences in gender, education and work experience influence strategic networking activities. The empirical research revealed interesting findings in regards to experience and education differences among Slovene SMEs, especially with respect to gender (male versus female), as well as to moderation effects gender plays on these interdependencies.