Inter-Firm Collaboration, Learning and Networks


Book Description

Developments in technology and globalisation have led to an upsurge in inter-organizational relations. This book surveys the current field, connects differing perspectives and answers questions about who should collaborate, why, and how.




Inter-firm Collaboration, Learning and Networks


Book Description

Developments in technology and globalisation have led to an upsurge in inter-organizational relations. This book surveys the current field, connects differing perspectives and answers questions about who should collaborate, why, and how.










Collaborative Strategic Improvement Through Network Action Learning


Book Description

Improvement is fundamental to the competitiveness of networks and requires the participating firms to collaborate in identifying and introducing changes. This book presents collaborative strategic improvement as a cycle of activities in which firms in a network can engage together. Drawing on actual cases, authors link this cycle with disciplined action learning as a means of building upon experience generated through collaborative action. They describe how a network can learn from experience and deploy that learning in the marketplace.




Interfirm Collaboration Networks


Book Description

The structure of alliance networks strongly influences their potential for knowledge creation. Dense local clustering provides transmission capacity in the network by fostering communication and cooperation while non-redundant connections contract the distance between firms and give the network greater reach by tapping a wider range of knowledge resources. However, since firms are constrained in forming alliances, there appears to be a trade-off between creating transmission capacity versus reach. We argue that small world connectivity (i.e., simultaneity of high clustering and short average path lengths in a sparse, decentralized network) helps resolve this tradeoff by enabling transmission capacity and reach to be achieved simultaneously. We propose that firms embedded in alliance networks that exhibit high clustering and short average path lengths to a wide range of firms will experience greater knowledge creation than firms in networks that do not exhibit these characteristics. We find support for this proposition in a longitudinal study of the patent performance of 1106 firms in 11 industry-level alliance networks.




The Impact of Inter-Firm Relations on Creativity and Innovation


Book Description

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: A, University of Groningen (Faculty of Economics and Business), course: International Business & Management, language: English, abstract: Although various researchers have called attention to inter-firm relations and their effect on innovation, relatively few studies so far have examined the topic from an integrative point of view. While some research has been done on individual variables chosen by the researchers beforehand for a certain firm in a specific industry and setting, there has been a small amount of research towards a much more universal approach. The here presented study therefore aims at gaining comprehensive insight into the fundamentals of the previously described approach. In particular the objective of this study is to analyse how the characteristics of inter-firm relations influence creativity and innovation. This is done by contextualizing the factors used in previous literature and analysing their impact on innovation as well as the implementation processes.




Role of Inter-Firm Networks in Technology Adoption


Book Description

Collaboration for innovation through the distant search for knowledge presents unique challenges from partnering for resources. Firms through their exploratory learning are incorporating informal knowledge flows in order to retain the organizational capability to respond to environmental uncertainties. This quantitative correlational study examined the mediating role of social capital in the inter-firm network on the adoption of innovative technologies required to exploit oil and gas resources efficiently. The empirical study integrated a conceptual model that comprised the knowledge-based view, alliance and social network theories. The impact of informal knowledge networks in collaborative organizations was observed to be positive and was moderated by the specific partner firm attributes. Support for establishing professional communities cuts across international oil companies (IOCs), national oil companies (NOCs) and service oil companies (SOCs) that frequently deploy beneficial oilfield technologies to enhance competitive advantage. The managerial implication is the premiums required to form and break established network ties when aligning the organization.







Design and Management of Interfirm Networks


Book Description

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.