Inter-firm Collaboration Research Articles

Foreign subsidiaries’ internal and external R&D cooperation in South Korea: Explanatory factors and interaction

This article analyses R&D cooperation strategies by foreign subsidiaries of MNEs located in South Korea. It differentiates between foreign subsidiaries with no R&D cooperation and those which favour internal or external R&D cooperation. Providing country-specific discussion in the context of South Korea, this enables comparison and contrast of the importance of innovation networks developed by MNE subsidiaries. Using various models, the results show that foreign subsidiaries in South Korea adopt complementary internal and external R&D cooperation strategies. Knowledge sourcing is found to be a key determinant of R&D cooperation, and government policies act as a strong incentive for inter-firm collaboration.

Why strategic networks often fail: Some empirical evidence from the area of Naples

The literature on inter-firm collaboration primarily concentrates on successful cases and tries to explain why and how they obtained their success. On the other hand, there are fewer contributions that study the reasons for inter-firm relationships failure. This paper responds to that deficiency by providing evidence as to why inter-firm collaboration fails, and identifies processes where it is possible to pass from a difficult and complex relationship (where mutual trust is not notably present) to situations of recovery and re-positioning. Empirical evidence is presented from two specific areas in the Campania Region (Italy) to test a proposed theoretical model that identifies the importance of partners' previous experience and their awareness of the importance of inter-firm cooperation as determinants of the survival and success of the collaboration.

Defence firms facing liberalization: innovation and export in an agent-based model of the defence industry

The paper presents an agent-based simulation model of the European defence industry. The model resembles some of the key characteristics of the defence sector, and studies how firms in this market will respond to the challenges and opportunities provided by a higher degree of openness and liberalization in the future. The simulation analysis points out that European defence firms will progressively become more efficient, less dependent on public procurement and innovation policy support, and more prone to knowledge sharing and inter-firm collaborations. This firm-level dynamics will in the long-run lead to an increase in the industry’s export propensity and a less concentrated export market.

Research Commentary—Information Technology-Enabled Business Models: A Conceptual Framework and a Coevolution Perspective for Future Research

There is growing recognition that firms' information technology (IT)-enabled business models (i.e., how interfirm transactions with suppliers, customers, and partners are structured and executed) are a distinctive source of value creation and appropriation. However, the concept of business models' (BMs) “IT enablement” remains coarse in the information systems and strategic management literatures. Our objectives are to introduce a framework to elaborate the concept of IT-enabled BMs and to identify areas for future research that will enhance our understanding of the subject. We introduce the idea that two business-to-business (B2B) IT capabilities—dyadic IT customization and network IT standardization—are the mediating execution mechanisms between the strategic intent of interfirm collaboration and the (re)configuration of BMs to both create and appropriate value. We develop the logic that B2B IT capabilities for BM (re)configuration operate at two levels—IT customization at the dyadic relationship level and IT standardization at the interfirm network level—that together provide the complementary IT capabilities for firms to exchange content, govern relationships, and structure interconnections between products and processes with a diverse set of customers, suppliers, and partners. We discuss how these two complementary B2B IT capabilities are pivotal for firms to pursue different sources of value creation and appropriation. We identify how a firm's governance choices to engage in interfirm collaboration and its interfirm networks coevolve with its B2B IT capabilities as fruitful areas for future research.

Balancing Exploration and Exploitation in Supply Chain Portfolios

This study investigates the influence of supply chain portfolios on the paradox of exploration and exploitation within interfirm collaborations. This study deploys two supply chain portfolio characteristics, supplier diversity and repeated partnerships, to explain the evolution of technological innovations and supply chain portfolios. It tests a set of hypotheses using a longitudinal study of 76 Taiwanese high-tech companies between 2001 and 2005. The findings support the premise that a diverse supplier base and deep familiarity with individual suppliers stimulate firms' exploration and exploitation activities. This study also finds that the threshold effects of these two characteristics on exploration activities clarify how determinants of firms' supply chain portfolios influence the developmental paths in the firm's evolution of exploration and exploitation activities.

Careers, clusters and employment mobility: The influences of psychological mobility and organizational support

Industry-specific, innovation-driven regional clusters have become a central focus for economic development and government intervention, and invite a deeper understanding of cluster participants' careers. In the extant research on careers and clusters, most studies have focused on examining employment mobility levels of the individuals involved. However, so far little research has tried to understand the psychological mechanisms and processes behind those careers. This paper aims to contribute to the research gap by investigating how individuals' participation in regional inter-firm collaborations affects their careers, and with what consequences for their employment mobility. Based on two-wave qualitative data from a French competitiveness cluster, we identify a set of psychological constructs, and offer a model depicting links that describe the career consequences of individuals' inter-firm collaborations. The paper concludes with a discussion of these findings in light of their contributions for future research.

Coordination vs. Cooperation in Interfirm Collaboration: Evidence from the Airbus A350 Program

Much is known about the coordination and cooperation problems that interfirm collaborations often entail, and about how to organize accordingly. Yet surprisingly little is known about how mechanisms that strengthen coordination (cooperation) may in turn weaken cooperation (coordination), because most research has focused exclusively on one challenge. To elaborate emergent theory on the tradeoffs between coordination and cooperation in interfirm collaboration, and on the mechanisms that are generating them, we use an inductive, in-depth study of an extreme case – the re-organization that the aircraft manufacturer Airbus implemented at the outset of its latest aircraft program. We identify how measures that were intended to enhance coordination in turn increased cooperation challenges among firms, and we reconstruct how they weakened two main mechanisms for interfirm governance. Our paper provides empirical corroboration for the notion that, while coordination and cooperation represent distinct analytical challenges, their solutions are interlinked in complex ways. In opening up the nature of these interactions, and how they can lead to tradeoffs between coordination and cooperation, our paper has important implications for extant theory on designing interfirm collaborations.

Architecture of Dynamic Capabilities:Explaining Innovativeness in the Context of Nanotechnology

In this paper we explore different components of dynamic capabilities related to firm’s boundary-spanning linkages across two different types of inter-organizational activities - alliances and networks. We argue that there are very different skill sets of dynamic capabilities simultaneously at work and that there is a significant interaction effect between these distinctive skill sets driving the firm’s overall effectiveness in sensing and seizing of innovative, external opportunities. We explore potential interdependencies and draw distinctions among different dynamic capability elements by integrating concepts from the two theoretical perspectives that often neglect the emphasis of the other - the dynamic capability view and the social network perspective. The findings offer support for the conceptualizations of dynamic capabilities as consisting of distinct subsets of capabilities for the sensing and the seizing of external new-knowledge opportunities across two different inter-organizational contexts. The findings suggests that there are potential synergies between the subsets of dynamic capabilities that are more macro oriented (i.e. sensing and seizing of opportunities within networks) and those that are more micro oriented (i.e. sensing and seizing of opportunities within alliances) but that the linear model of generating innovations through inter-firm collaborations in an emerging field may no longer be valid.

Exploring towards partners: Entry into new business domains in the U.S. venture capital firms

This paper examines the role of interfirm collaboration in firms’ exploration into new business domains. The general tendency of exploration-averseness is due to the lack of knowledge in the unexpe...

"Recombining for Breakthroughs: The Role of the Alliance Network, Portfolio, and Partners"

Current research stressed the role of established firms in the creation of breakthroughs. The role of interfirm collaboration has been discussed extensively regarding the innovative performance of ...

Inter-firm collaborations on carbon emission reduction within industrial chains in China: Practices, drivers and effects on firms' performances

The purpose of this paper is to explore the determinants that influence the industrial firms to cooperate on carbon emission reduction (CER) within their industrial chains. And whether the CER collaborations could improve the performance of participants is another focus of our study. This paper provides a questionnaire survey about CER inter-firm collaborations on energy intensive industries in China. Three regression models including Multiple Linear Regression, Binary Choice Model, and Ordinal Choice Regression are employed to identify the determinants that drive or impede the implementation of CER collaborations. The results show that inter-firm CER collaborations are generally at an infancy stage in China. The main driver for CER collaborations derives from the CER demands of other stakeholders in the industrial chains. And the lack of infrastructure and mechanism is the main barrier that impedes the inter-firm collaborations. Moreover, CER collaborations through industrial symbiosis play a positive role in improving economic performance. However, the effects are to a large extent related to the improved environmental performance through the CER collaborations. Our results also indicate that there is much room for industrial firms to conduct CER collaborations in China, and market tools are somewhat more effective than compulsive regulations for promoting CER collaborations.

The development of regional collaboration for resource efficiency: A network perspective on industrial symbiosis

Industrial symbiosis (IS) improves regional sustainability through inter-firm collaboration for more efficient use of materials and energy. Drawing on the literature of IS and complex networks, this paper proposes three forming processes of IS networks corresponding to different institutional settings – preferential growth under self-organization, homogeneous growth under coordination and facilitation, and random pairing under planning and policy promotion. We examine the growth of IS networks and the impact of promotional institutions by analyzing a diverse sample of 15 IS networks including 204 firms. Additional illustrations of by-product and utility networks are provided for the cases of Kalundborg (Denmark) and Kwinana (Australia). The results suggest that preferential growth is a dominant process widely held in self-organized IS networks, indicating an enduring disparity of firms’ capabilities in building IS. Firm-organized coordination as well as government facilitation and promotion tend to change the preferential growth to a more homogeneous one, by improving the capabilities of previously disadvantaged firms. The improvement of disadvantaged firms and non-preferential growth under facilitation and promotion call for the overall symbiotic opportunities to be explored more thoroughly, and render the IS system more resilient in a region. This effect of policy promotion, however, may take time to change the IS system, and may be diminished in utility exchanges and in areas with fewer, undiversified firms, due to technical difficulties and lack of opportunities to expand an existing IS network. Policy-making and planning should take into consideration the local industry composition and context, as well as other cost associated with the policies to determine the appropriate extent of promotion and incentives.

Strategies for Improving New Product Development Performances through Inter-Firm Collaboration between Large Enterprises and SMEs : Focusing on New Product Development with Conditional Purchase Option

Strategies for Improving New Product Development Performances through Inter-Firm Collaboration between Large Enterprises and SMEs : Focusing on New Product Development with Conditional Purchase Option

DUAL ALLEGIANCE, KNOWLEDGE SHARING, AND KNOWLEDGE PROTECTION: AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION

Earlier research has put forward the theoretical proposition that R&D employees exhibit different patterns of allegiance — they tend to either develop a unilateral allegiance (to their own firm or to the inter-firm collaboration), a dual low allegiance or a dual high allegiance. It has also been proposed that each particular allegiance type influences these employees' knowledge sharing behaviour. The present paper empirically tests these claims. Analysing original data collected through 50 interviews that took place in 2011 and 2012 in the R&D units of two global firms in Finland, the United States, and China, we confirm that these allegiance patterns exist and there is a relationship between allegiance and knowledge sharing behaviour. We also extend the previous theoretical framework on which the study is based and analyse not only knowledge sharing, but also knowledge protection behaviour.

Financing GPNs Through Inter-Firm Collaboration? Insights from the Automotive Industry in Germany and Brazil

Despite its obvious importance, finance is to date still a blind spot in GPN research (Coe et al. 2013, Coe 2012). This paper addresses this lacuna and focuses on the circulation of financial capital and forms of inter-firm financing in production networks in the automotive sector in Germany and Brazil. Conceptually, it takes the emerging body of literature in the field of supply chain finance (SCF) as point of departure which argues that a financial management blurring the boundaries of the single firm can increase the competitiveness of GPNs and their capacities to cope with external shocks. In empirical terms, it draws on qualitative work conducted in Germany and Brazil between 2011 and 2013. According to our explorations, instruments of inter-firm finance have been implemented in corporate practice only very recently, and with distinct variation by country. A number of observed restrictions may explain the inconsistency between SCF theory and corporate practice: On the level of the individual firm, the perception of risks, the interlinking of buying and financing relationships, divergent aims of involved departments as well as the corporate strategy and the persistence of financing practices have become evident as important influencing factors. On the level of networks power relations, conflicting interests and a lack of mutual trust represent obstacles. Thirdly, context-specific conditions – in particular the financial system and legal regulations – affect the design and use of such financing instruments. The paper concludes with a discussion of success factors of collaborative financing in GPNs and possible implications for regional development.

Is Information Technology a Useful Source of Sustainable Interfirm Collaboration or Simply a Cost of Transactions?

Is Information Technology a Useful Source of Sustainable Interfirm Collaboration or Simply a Cost of Transactions?

Innovation in tradition-based firms: dynamic knowledge for international competitiveness

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a model of innovation and internationalization for small- and medium enterprises (SMEs) and at testing it on tradition-based firms. These are SMEs whose productions reflect their territory's cultural identity. They are often micro-firms and weak in global markets. Since these firms characterize the European and Italian offer, the scientific challenge is to verify whether there are possible strategic paths, mainly based on interfirm collaboration and dynamic knowledge, that can help them getting higher levels of competitiveness. More specifically, the proposed model aims at understanding if it is possible to overcome these firms’ weaknesses through collaboration in networking perspective. Design/methodology/approach – Methodology uses theoretical backgrounds in order to define hypotheses. The main approach starts from contributions on RBT and dynamic capabilities and their possible linkages in the internationalization perspective. Thus, considering the aims...

Is the more always better? A comparative study of internal and external integration practices in new product and new service development

This study investigates the relationship between internal and external integration practices and innovation success of new products and new services. Building on the idea that key success drivers in new product and new service development may have implementing costs besides their obvious benefits, this article examines the possibility that a nonlinear relationship in the shape of an inverted U exists between innovation success and the antecedents examined in this research. The present study also addresses scholars' call for research to investigate differences in the drivers of new product and new service success. The findings suggest that differences exist in the nature of the relationship—that is, linear versus nonlinear—between cross-functional integration, customer integration, and interfirm collaboration and innovation success in a new product versus new service setting.

Canonical correlation analysis between collaborative networks and innovation: A case study in information technology companies in province of Tehran, Iran

Article history: Received January 30, 2013 Received in revised format 20 May 2013 Accepted May 28 2013 Available online June 3 2013 The increase competitions as well as technological advancements have created motivation among business owners to look for more innovative ideas from outside their organizations. Many enterprises collaborate with other organizations to empower themselves through innovative ideas. These kinds of collaborations can be observed as a concept called Regional Innovation System. These collaborations include inter-firm collaborations, research organizations, intermediary institutions and governmental agencies. The primary objective of this paper is to evaluate relationships between Collaborative Networks and Innovation in information technology business units located in province of Tehran, Iran. The research method utilized for the present study is descriptive-correlation. To evaluate the relationships between independent and dependent variables, canonical correlation analysis (CCA) is used. The results confirm the previous findings regarding the relationship between Collaborative Networks and Innovation. Among various dimensions of Collaboration, Collaboration with governmental agencies had a very small impact on the relationship between collaboration networks and innovation. In addition, the results show that in addition to affecting product innovation and process innovation, collaboration networks also affected management innovation.

Exploring the Nanotechnology Alliances of Nanotechnology Firms: The Roles of Network Position and Technological Uncertainty

Nanotechnology is now increasing attention to inter-firm collaboration and alliances for developing nanotechnology commercialisation opportunities. This study explores and examines nanotechnology alliance networking behaviour to determine fully what types of factors drive nanotechnology alliance activities. The proposed research frameworks attempt to fill the gap in knowledge regarding emerging nanotechnology alliance behaviour and to explore the alliance decisions driving inter-firm nanotechnology alliances that are grounded in deeper knowledge of nanotechnology alliances. The primary focus of nanotechnology alliance activity for nanotechnology-based firms confirms that nanotechnology alliances are influenced directly by inter-firm R&D ties and by joint interactions among inter-firm R&D ties, network positions and technological uncertainty. Specifically, we propose that a nanotechnology-based firm is highly likely to engage in alliances regarding decision-making activity. Using an original dataset of nanotechnology-based firms in the emerging nanotechnology alliance activity, we found that the joint effect of a position of high network centrality and a high level of technological uncertainty weakens inter-firm nanotechnology alliances.