Why Regional Partnership Outperforms Isolation
By Richard Kirtley, Feb 20th 2026
There is an long held belief in business that growth is forged in competition and that sharper positioning, tighter margins, and stronger branding will ultimately win the day. Competition has its place. It disciplines, it clarifies and it forces continuous improvement, but it is no longer the whole story.
Across innovation research, alliance theory, and ecosystem strategy, a different pattern has emerged. Growth in complex economies is increasingly systemic and happens not through isolation, but through alignment and not through fragmentation, but through connection.
Over the past year in the West Midlands, we have seen this principle come quietly to life.
What the Research Tells Us
One of the most cited studies in open innovation, Open for Innovation: The Role of Openness in Explaining Innovation Performance, found that firms which search broadly for external ideas by engaging, for example, suppliers, customers, universities, and partners, outperform those relying solely on internal resources. In simple terms, innovation improves when organisations open themselves to external collaboration.
(Laursen & Salter, 2006 – Strategic Management Journal)
Later research reinforced this insight, demonstrating that inbound open innovation activities including deliberate use of external knowledge and networks, are positively associated with firm performance when managed intentionally.
(Greco et al., 2015 – Technological Forecasting & Social Change)
Meanwhile, Ron Adner’s influential work on business ecosystems reframed competitive advantage itself. He argues that success depends not only on the focal organisation’s strength, but on “the alignment of multiple partners required to deliver a value proposition.” (Adner, 2017 – Journal of Management)
Even research into “coopetition”, the simultaneous practice of cooperation and competition, finds that firms engaging in well-structured collaborative relationships often experience stronger innovation and market performance outcomes than those competing alone.
“Competitive advantage increasingly depends on the configuration and alignment of partners.”
— Ron Adner, Ecosystem as Structure
The message across this literature is consistent and it tells us that organisations grow more effectively when they learn how to collaborate deliberately.
Partnership in the West Midlands
This is not abstract theory for us at Purple Shoots as over the last phase of our partnership with BCRS Business Loans, we have seen what ecosystem thinking looks like in practice.
Referrals flowing from trusted regional intermediaries such as CWRT.
Grant support strengthening our capacity to deploy loans responsibly.
Local knowledge helping to shape lending decisions.
Information travelling across organisational boundaries rather than stopping at them.
What emerged was not a rigid structure, but a lightly held architecture where each organisation played to its strengths:
- Referral partners identify potential early, often in cases where they can’t help a client themselves due to their capacity constraints, but where they still want to see a positive outcome.
- BCRS provided grant support that strengthened our regional capacity and enabled our operation in the West Midlands
- Purple Shoots delivered relational, patient lending.
There is absolutely no duplication, no institutional turf war and no heavy bureaucracy dictating process. Instead, there is alignment.
Why Informal Alignment Works
The strength of this partnership lies precisely in its informality.
It is not over-engineered. It is not centrally commanded. It is built on shared purpose and mutual trust.
Research on alliance capability consistently shows that partnerships succeed not because they are complex, but because they are intentional and well-governed. When organisations understand their complementary roles, collaboration becomes a significant multiplier rather than a dilution of strength.
“Searching widely for external knowledge increases innovation performance.”
— Laursen & Salter, 2006
In the West Midlands, that search has been regional rather than global and the cultivated ecosystem is place-based. It recognises that opportunity travels through trusted networks, and that effective finance must sit within relational infrastructure.
Rather than competing for referrals or funding lines, organisations have coordinated which has seen, rather than fragmenting effort, aligned vision and goals. The result at the end of all this has not merely become a transactional relationship, but instead has become a structural partnership.
Growth as Architecture
Community finance often operates under conditions of scarcity and the instinct under scarcity is rivalry, yet the research suggests that fragmentation constrains scale, while collaboration builds resilience.
When organisations share intelligence, distribute roles, and coordinate action, they reduce friction across the system. Decisions become better informed, risk becomes more intelligently distributed and opportunity moves more freely.
Adner’s ecosystem framework describes this as value being co-created through aligned actors. In practice, it looks much simpler and in our context:
- Regional intermediaries connected rather than siloed.
- Capital deployed with context.
- Roles defined by complementarity rather than competition.
This has meant that the grant funding provided for Purple Shoots in 2025 was not just the continuation of a funding line but was recognition that regional alignment produces stronger, more coherent outcomes than institutional isolation.
The Bigger Question
If partnership can strengthen outcomes in one region through a relatively informal but intentional alliance, what might happen if we took ecosystem design seriously across the sector?
Competition sharpens.
Partnership builds infrastructure.
Growth, as we see it, in complex environments, is rarely a solo act but instead is coordinated, relational and architectural.
In the West Midlands, that architecture is quietly taking shape, growing, solidifying and transforming.
For us, it suggests, very simply, that the future of inclusive growth may depend less on who competes hardest, and more on who collaborates best.