Interfirm Partnering Research Articles

Relational resources and capabilities in acquisitions, joint ventures and alliances in the automotive industry

This article analyses the resources, capabilities and advantages of relational processes of acquisitions, joint ventures, alliances and partnerships in the automotive sector based on an analysis of five dyad case studies. These strategies imply significant structural and relational changes constrained by a systemic disintegration of production and new governance structures such as inter-firm partnering and networking. Data were collected using interviews, participant observation, documents and specialised publications and were evaluated based on the content analysis technique. The results of the survey indicate that these mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures: 1) have enabled automakers and supplier growth through the process of internationalisation; 2) are driven by different objectives, but mainly by geographical locations and technological, managerial, institutional and market resource complementarities; 3) reveal a significant exchange of resources and capabilities acquired through these relationships at intra- and/or inter-organisational levels in the internationalisation process.

Managing innovation through co-production in interfirm partnering

Innovation is a key source of knowledge-based competitive advantage. However, research on how firms' co-production enhances innovation is scarce. Thus, this study not only integrates the three dimensions of social capital and examines these dimensions' separate effects on co-production but also incorporates the roles of absorptive capacity and self-efficacy, analyzing their effect on innovation. This study uses a random sampling method to select 221 firms in Taiwan and employs structural equations modeling to test the relationships. The findings indicate that absorptive capacity and self-efficacy enhance innovation. Co-production positively affects innovation, absorptive capacity, and self-efficacy. The findings also support positive relationships between social capital and co-production. This study contributes to the little research that explores partnership co-production in innovation.

Understanding the Cross-Level Embeddedness of Interfirm Partnership Formation

This paper suggests a cross-level understanding of the embeddedness of interfirm partnering in the context of the formation of new partnerships. It makes a critical distinction among environmental embeddedness, interorganizational embeddedness, and dyadic embeddedness, stressing the importance of understanding the interaction of these different levels of embeddedness. This focus on the complex interaction effects of different levels of embeddedness of interfirm partnering sets this contribution apart from previous work in the field.

The Role of Relational Knowledge Stores in Interfirm Partnering

Drawing on the notions of relational capabilities and absorptive capacity, the authors examine the effects of interactional, functional, and environmental knowledge stores on relationship quality and relationship portfolio effectiveness. The results suggest that the knowledge stores affect the outcome variables differently and that the effects vary by levels of industry turbulence.

Collaborative energy partnerships in relation to development of core business focus and competence – a study of Swedish pulp and paper companies and energy service companies

AbstractSeveral aspects of the growing market for energy‐related collaboration between pulp and paper industries (PPIs) and energy service companies (ESCOs) in Sweden were investigated through in‐depth interviews with PPI and ESCO managers. Aspects of concern are the different forms of co‐operation established, the managers' views on the recent changes made regarding competence and business focus, the managers' views on the opportunities and risks with energy related co‐operation and the implications for sustainable industrial energy management. The study shows that there is a mutual belief among PPI and ESCO managers that co‐operation can provide opportunities for improved competitiveness through a more rational distribution of competences between companies. The main two barriers against the utilization of this potential are that ESCOs must prove that they can bring added values other than capital to pulp and paper mills, and the lack of competition between external energy service providers. Furthermore, we argue that adding aspects related to competence and inter‐firm partnering can improve the existing theory surrounding barriers and opportunities for sustainable industrial energy management in manufacturing industries. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

The development of interfirm partnering competence: Platforms for learning, learning activities, and consequences of learning

This study investigated factors within the firm that encourage organizational learning activities. The authors suggest that when the appropriate factors are present, the firm will more likely engage in learning activities integral in the development of interfirm partnering competence. The conditions for building partnering competence are found in the firm's culture and climate in the form of learning intent, receptivity, and transparency. In addition, the authors suggested that learning-related activities would generate some positive influence on specific interfirm relationships (IFRs). The authors tested these ideas on data from a multiindustry mail survey. Results largely conformed to expectations. The platform variables, for the most part, enhanced learning activities in building partnering competence. In turn, learning activities focused on partnering competence led to more effective and efficient IFRs and greater commitment in the relationship.

Learning in Dynamic Inter-Firm Networks: The Efficacy of Multiple Contacts

This paper examines the relevance of both efficiency-based and learning-based network behaviour in the context of inter-firm partnering. The effect of these different forms of network behaviour on company performance is analyzed for companies in the international computer industry. Strategies associated with learning through so-called exploratory networks appear to generate a greater impact on technological performance in a dynamic environment than efficiency strategies through exploitative networks.

The nature of interfirm partnering in supply chain management

This paper conceptually integrates the antecedents and consequences of strategic and operational partnering. We suggest a continuum exists from strategic to operational partnering depending on the level of antecedents, orientation, and implementation. This paper, thus, expands the theory of partnering by providing an inclusive picture of the “partnering” phenomenon with the environmental pressures, antecedents, orientation, implementation, and consequences of strategic and operational partnering for vertical relationships within retail supply chains.

Trends and patterns in strategic technology partnering since the early seventies

This paper analyses some basic trends and patterns in inter-firm strategic technology partnering during the past two and a half decades. The description of growth patterns in strategic technology partnering reveals that this phenomenon has become increasingly popular during the eighties and the early nineties. Joint ventures, once the most prominent form of inter-firm partnering, have, to a very large degree, been replaced by a wide variety of contractual agreements. International patterns of partnering are discussed for the Triad (USA, Europe, Japan) in terms of changes in the distribution of domestic and cross-border alliances.

Catching up or falling behind: Patterns in international interfirm technology partnering

The central issue in this paper is to what extent diverging international patterns in the distribution of technological capabilities are also found in interfirm technology cooperation. To answer this question attention will be paid to two, largely different forms of interfirm technology partnering. One is the phenomenon of strategic technology partnering, the other covers interfirm technology transfer agreements. Other mechanisms for international technology transfer that we discuss put the central subject of the present contribution in a wider context. The analysis enables us to address the possible limits of catching up through technology partnering and the major differences between the developed economies, newly industrialized countries (NICs) and less-deeveloped countries (LDCs). A major conclusion in that interfirm partnering so far has not led to a catching up of LDCs and most of the NICs, as it is much more part of a process of concentration of technological competencies within the developed economies.