RESUMO ABSTRACTO objetivo deste artigo é mapear os principais estudos, publicados na literatura nacional e internacional, sobre redes de Pequenas e Médias Empresas (PMEs), a fim de consolidar os diferentes pontos de vista sobre as vantagens de se aderir a uma rede de empresas. Para isso, foi selecionado, por meio de um processo estruturado, um portfólio bibliográfico. Este estudo, de caráter descritivo e bibliográfico, concluiu que as vantagens apresentadas por pesquisadores, em ambos os contextos, são congruentes e complementares: ganhos no aspecto gerencial, desenvolvimento conjunto de novos produtos, redução de custos, acesso a novos mercados, acesso a mão de obra especializada -e importantes para a melhoria da competitividade das PMEs.
Palavras-chave:Redes organizacionais. Revisão de literatura. Pequenas e médias empresas (PMEs).37 followed path to select the articles (21 published in international journals and 33 published in journals national) that formed the researched bibliographic portfolio.The second specific objective was to consolidate the main advantages of joining a network of enterprises from the perspective of the authors who have published articles in national and international journals. This goal was achieved and demonstrated from the information contained Figure 1, where are cited the gains in management aspects, joint development of new products, cost reduction, access to new markets, access to specialized workers. And the third objective was to compare the advantages related to internal and external organizational context of national and international publications. Figures 2 and 3 identify the internal advantages (gain of collective efficiency, increase of specialization, exchange of experiences, improvement of products, joint projects of innovation, cost reduction, etc..) and external (higher participation in market share by revenue growth, market consolidation and opening of new markets, etc..) that are converging between the publications and the advantages that are not convergent, that is, which have been pointed out only by authors who have published in national or international journals From the results, it is argued that participating in a cooperation network (i) brings important benefits to the competitiveness of enterprises (BITITCI et al., 2007); (ii) allows to overcome the limitations inherent to a SME (BITITCI et al., 2004; GEROLAMO et al., 2008; HANNA; WALSH, 2008); (iii) provides greater stability to the enterprises and these gains do not always have measurable results in economic and financial terms (ANTONELLI; CAROLEO, 2011). This work present as limitations: (i) the absence of the comparison of literature with practical situations of enterprises that operate individually and in network, (ii) the use of subjectivity in some stages of the selection of articles to form the bibliographic portfolio, and (iii) absence in the study of literature search inherent to the mentioned disadvantages by the researchers regarding the inclusion of SMEs in collaborative networks. Thus, it is poi...