The provision of Business Development Services (BDS) is critical to the survival and sustainable growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). BDS in Nigeria has been poorly provided as there are very few institutions that provide it. As a result, most SMEs neither appreciate the need for such services nor access them. This paper posits that a Business Development Service co-created through collaboration between the service provider and service consumer stands to elicit the need for such service among SMEs as well as improve their utilization and access to BDS. Based on theoretical paradigm and contemporary practices as documented in literature, this paper suggests that Institution of Higher Learning (IHL) are best positioned to provide the BDS. Given the provision of services like BDS may involve the collaboration of other organizations and institutions, it is the suggestion of this paper that the institutions who may undertake this project collaborate with larger enterprises and mass media organizations in alliance to provide the service while on the other hand, SMEs within the target market are sensitized through a radio phone-in programs that address the general problems of SMEs. When this is done, it is expected that an opportunity of interaction between the consumers of service and provider would have been in place for the requisite value-based BDS to be co-created.
Keywords: Business Development Services, Co-Creation, Collaboration, Leveraged Value, SME
