Challenging the current flood of mergers and acquisitions this book presents an alternative, more efficient strategy of inter-firm alliances. In the context of recent developments in international business, the discussion takes in alliances between buyers and suppliers, between competitors and between firms in different industries. This theory is illustrated and elaborated with empirical detail from a variety of international case-studies. These studies include the car industry in the US, Europe and Japan, the Dutch photocopier industry and ten European electronic suppliers ... Inter-firm Alliances combines resource-based views, transaction-cost analysis and institutional economics to develop an original and comprehensive theory of inter-firm alliances and a coherent method for managing them.

Challenging the current flood of mergers and acquisitions this book presents an alternative, more efficient strategy of inter-firm alliances. In the context of recent developments in international business, the discussion takes in alliances between buyers and suppliers, between competitors and between firms in different industries. This theory is illustrated and elaborated with empirical detail from a variety of international case-studies. These studies include the car industry in the US, Europe and Japan, the Dutch photocopier industry and ten European electronic suppliers ... Inter-firm Alliances combines resource-based views, transaction-cost analysis and institutional economics to develop an original and comprehensive theory of inter-firm alliances and a coherent method for managing them.

The organization of interfirm networks, such as alliances, cooperatives, franchise and retail chains, has become an important research topic in the field of economics, marketing, strategic management, and organization theory. This book contributes to the literature on formal and informal inter-organizational governance by providing new insights on contract design, ownership, evolution of cooperation, role of social capital and performance in franchising networks; includes topics of loyalty, reputation and organizational form as well as performance of cooperatives, and discusses the relationship between formal and relational governance in alliances, governance structures of innovation activities, dynamics of interfirm conflicts, and network externalities and alliance formation.

Interfirm networks include franchising, retail and service chains, cooperatives, financial networks, joint ventures, strategic alliances, licensing, public-private partnerships and new network forms in the digital economy. This book gathers the latest research studies that approach these networks – and the creation of innovation under the conditions of a complex, dynamic, knowledge-intensive and digital economy – from an interdisciplinary perspective. The studies, all of which were written by respected experts, explore how firms can improve their competitiveness by securing access to innovation, knowledge, complementary resources and capabilities otherwise not available to them. In addition, they highlight how, driven by an unpredictable environment, firms embedded in inter-organizational networks are increasingly transforming from co-operators to collaborators and valuable co-creators of innovation.

Strategic Alliances for Value Creation is a volume in the book series Research in Strategic Alliances that will focus on providing a robust and comprehensive forum for new scholarship in the field of strategic alliances. In particular, the books in the series will cover new views of interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks and models, significant practical problems of alliance organization and management, and emerging areas of inquiry. The series will also include comprehensive empirical studies of selected segments of business, economic, industrial, government, and non-profit activities with wide prevalence of strategic alliances. Through the ongoing release of focused topical titles, this book series will seek to disseminate theoretical insights and practical management information that will enable interested professionals to gain a rigorous and comprehensive understanding of the field of strategic alliances. Strategic Alliances for Value Creation contains contributions by leading scholars in the field of strategic alliance research. The 14 chapters in this volume cover a number of significant topics that encompass value creation through strategic alliances in recent times. The chapters cover both the broader topics, such as multi-partner alliances, technology parks, intellectual property rights, knowledge management and culture, portfolio theory, learning in alliances, and open innovation, and the more focused problems of transparency in interfirm accounting, local partner perspective of management control, knowledge in intra-district networks, and alliance partners for entrepreneurial firms. The chapters include empirical as well as conceptual treatments of the selected topics, and collectively present a wide-ranging review of the noteworthy areas of research on employing strategic alliances for value creation.

The real options-based conceptual framework for alliance-making presented here responds to the challenge of developing a new metrics for managing strategic partnerships in the face of uncertainty. Such a framework involves: mapping (and selecting one of) the various staged paths envisioned for the start-up and development of the alliance in terms of strategic options exercisable over the lifetime of the cooperative venture; assessing the incremental, synergistic value of those options (if exercised on the net, tangible and intangible, assets of the venture); anticipating the potential impact of risks on the success/failure of the venture and associated synergistic value erosion; defining the optimal option map for implementing the strategic alliance via potential, successive adjustments to the initial strategy (information loop is closed).

This volume examines the factors which influence the nature and extent of inter-firm alliances. The discussion takes in alliances between buyers and suppliers, between competitors, between firms in different industries, against the background of developments in international business. On the basis of an inventory of different forms of alliance, the author defines rigorous criteria for choosing one. A set of tools is then developed for the design and analysis of governance of relations, as well as for establishing, developing and terminating an alliance. Inter-Firm Alliances combines 'resource-based' views, transaction-cost analysis and institutional economics to develop an original and comprehensive theory of inter-firm alliances and a coherent method for managing them. The theory is illustrated and elaborated with real-life detail from a variety of international case studies. Both as a theoretical guide to evolving organizational practice and as a manual for successfully governing inter-firm alliances, this volume will be a precious resource for students and researchers in business and international management studies.