Information sharing in the context of business cooperation – as a source of competitive advantage

One of the problems that SMEs are facing in the long run is lack of external information to assess opportunities and threats in their business environment. This is due to specific management system of SMEs, where management levels are merged, as stated in the article, and management often focuses only on addressing current issues and fails to adequately respond to changes in the business environment. One way of acquiring relevant information about the external environment is mutual information sharing in the context of SMEs cooperation or in cooperation with a large company. The conducted empirical research mapped the levels of management in one of the distribution networks in Czech Republic and focused on defining the areas that need information support, determining their significance from the point of view of participating companies, and their willingness to provide information. Outcomes have shown the need for external information for SMEs, but information sharing between SMEs focuses only on some areas -customerrelated information and information about existing competitors is preferred. From the viewpoint of the manufacturing company, it was found that the information provided by distributors helped to supplement data available to management of the company. So far, the issue of information sharing has been largely addressed at the supply chain level, so this empirical research of the entire sector of competing firms is unique and, stemming from Porter's Five Forces analysis and frequency analysis, brings in new information.