Qualitative Model of Strategic Partnership in Small and Medium Enterprises

The research purpuse was to developing a qualitative model of strategic partnership for small and medium enterprises in the software industry. The research method was Descriptive-Analytic and has been done through Delphi teqnique. The Experts Panel of Delphi consists of 20 experts in the field of business management, entrepreneurship management, strategic management, and software industry that have been selected by snowball method. Delphi analysis was performed in three stages to collect data using semi-structured interviews and open and closed questionnaires. The validity of the data was controled and verified by using the Content Validity Ratio and the review and correction of the data by the experts’ panel. The reliability of the data was verified using Process Documentation. Qualitative data were categorized and analyzed using Open Coding and quantitative data were analyzed by statistical analysis with emphasis on data Frequency and Mean. The initial model extracted from the review of the existing scientific literature, after three stages of Delphi analysis, led to the development of a strategic partnership model with five dimensions; partnering propulsion (9 components), selection of partners (8 components), design and implementation of the partnership ( 6 components), partnership challenges (6 components) and partnership outcomes (6 components). The model and its pathes were also approved by the Panel of Experts.