Building linkages for competitive and responsible entrepreneurship

In many developing countries, partnerships are essential in helping small enterprises to upgrade and integrate into broader production networks and value chains and to improve their labour and environmental practices. These partnerships include brokerage mechanisms, business linkage initiatives, hybrid commercial and social business models, innovative financing instruments, enhanced enterprise support services, and new types of alliances between companies, trade associations, governments, donors, academic institutions and non-governmental organizations. This report provides a framework for categorizing six of these different models of multi-sector partnership and collective corporate action. It illustrates examples of existing initiatives and offers recommendations for increasing their scale and effectiveness.