Facilitating cross-border rural micro-firm knowledge exchange: A community of practice perspective

Knowledge sharing enhances the capability of rural microfirms to facilitate economic growth, competitiveness and employment. Knowledge exchange research predominantly focuses on larger firms in the same or related industries, and is of limited relevance in a rural micro-firm context, owing to significant differences in resource availability which can result in strategic knowledge constraints and the meagre development of micro-firms and the regions in which they reside/operate. The aim of this research is to explore the knowledge exchange criteria of rural micro-firms in a cross-border facilitated learning network (FLN). Drawing on the ‘community of practice’ perspective and the closely connected learning network literature, the authors observe and map FLN knowledge exchange activities over a three-year period. The resultant rural FLN knowledge exchange framework demonstrates that discipline and sector-specific barriers can be overcome through cyclical FLN interventions sensitive to the social proximity requirements necessary for effective cross-border knowledge exchange.