A robust fuzzy possibilistic AHP approach for partner selection in international strategic alliance

The international strategic alliance is an inevitable solution for making competitive advantage and reducing the risk in today’s business environment. Partner selection is an important part in success of partnerships, and meanwhile it is a complicated decision because of various dimensions of the problem and inherent conflicts of stockholders. The purpose of this paper is to provide a practical approach to the problem of partner selection in international strategic alliances, which fulfills the gap between theories of inter-organizational relationships and quantitative models. Thus, a novel Robust Fuzzy Possibilistic AHP approach is proposed for combining the benefits of two complementary theories of inter-organizational relationships named, (1) Resource-based view, and (2) Transaction-cost theory and considering Fit theory as the perquisite of alliance success. The Robust Fuzzy Possibilistic AHP approach is a noveldevelopment of Interval-AHP technique employing robust formulation; aimed at handling the ambiguity of the problem and let the use of intervals as pairwise judgments. The proposed approach was compared with existing approaches, and the results show that it provides the best quality solutions in terms of minimum error degree. Moreover, the framework implemented in a case study and its applicability were discussed

Strategic and Tactical Crude Oil Supply Chain: Mathematical Programming Models

Crude oil industry very fast became a strategic industry. Then, optimization of the Crude Oil Supply Chain (COSC) models has created new challenges. This fact motivated me to study the COSC mathematical programming models. We start with a systematic literature review to identify promising avenues. Afterwards, we elaborate three concert models to fill identified gaps in the COSC context, which are (i) joint venture formation, (ii) integrated upstream, and (iii) environmentally conscious design

Assessing partnership alternatives in an IT network employing analytical methods

One of the main critical success factors for the companies is their ability to build and maintain an effective collaborative network. This is more critical in the IT industry where the development of sustainable competitive advantage requires an integration of various resources, platforms, and capabilities provided by various actors. Employing such a collaborative network will dramatically change the operations management and promote flexibility and agility. Despite its importance, there is a lack of an analytical tool on collaborative network building process. In this paper, we propose an optimization model employing AHP and multiobjective programming for collaborative network building process based on two interorganizational relationships’ theories, namely, (i) transaction cost theory and (ii) resource-based view, which are representative of short-term and long-term considerations. The five different methods were employed to solve the formulation and their performances were compared. The model is implemented in an IT company who was in process of developing a large-scale enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The results show that the collaborative network formed through this selection process was more efficient in terms of cost, time, and development speed. The framework offers novel theoretical underpinning and analytical solutions and can be used as an effective tool in selecting network alternatives

Success criteria for international joint ventures: the experience of Malaysian contractors in the Middle East

The overall objective of this paper is to produce success criteria considered critical in international joint ventures (IJV), specifically between Malaysian and foreign contractors outside Malaysia. The recognition of such criteria will contribute to the identification of non-viable projects and will enable improvements to be made to the IJV and other similar economies. Data specific to the present study was collected through face-to-face interviews, which were carried out with the General Manager of the respective companies to provide detailed information on their company structure, management and experience of any joint venture projects undertaken outside Malaysia. The main findings from the interviews are that the critical factors in IJV partner selection criteria were related to the reputation, inter-partner trust, experience, personal knowledge of the partner organizations, commitment and human resources management. The employment of Malaysian sub-contractors also lessened the complexity of management. This is largely due to the familiarity of working with fellow Malaysians in the Middle East

Partner selection in international joint ventures : factors for the selection of partners in IJVs

The growing trend for companies to focus on geographical diversification implies a decisional process of how to face the opening of new markets and how to make the entry. The International Joint Ventures (IJV) are one of the major form of market entry mode selected by companies for this internationalization process, connecting with a local partner and using his resources to achieve successful entry. The partner selection is a primary factor for achieving success in establishing a JV, since that the high degree of failure and termination of relationships between companies come from an inappropriate choice of partner with lack of a proper due diligence and potential relationship problems. For this reason we seek to understand the most important factors for the selection of a partner in an IJV, based on a case study conducted in Sá Machado SA firm especially in its process of internationalization for the Angolan market. The factors encountered in the study are in agreement with other studies subjugated to the same theme, which define the knowledge and market access as primary factors, as well as financial / logistical support and a strong operational network. Regarding the factors focused on the relationship with the partner: trust, commitment and congruent goals are the major points highlighted as important in creating an IJV and essential factors for the success of the relationship.A crescente tendência para o enfoque das empresas na diversificação geográfica implica um processo decisional de como encarar a abertura de novos mercados e a melhor forma de proceder a essa entrada. As Internacional Joint Ventures (IJV) são uma das principais formas de entrada selecionadas pelas empresas para esse processo de internacionalização, estabelecendo uma ligação com um parceiro local e angariado dessa forma recursos que permitam atingir uma entrada com êxito. A seleção do parceiro é um dos fatores primordiais para a obtenção de sucesso no estabelecimento de uma JV uma vez que, o elevado grau de insucesso e término das relações entre empresas provêm, não só mas também, de uma escolha desadequada do parceiro, da ausência de uma correta due dilligence e potenciais problemas de relacionamento. Por essa razão procuramos perceber quais os fatores mais importantes na seleção de um parceiro numa IJV partindo de um estudo de caso efetuado na Sá Machado S.A. e do seu processo de internacionalização para o mercado Angolano. Os fatores encontram-se em concordância com outros estudos subjugados ao mesmo tema, em que definem o conhecimento e acesso ao mercado como fatores primordiais, assim como, apoio financeiro/ logístico e uma forte network operacional. No que concerne ao fatores mais focados na relação com o parceiro a confiança, o comprometimento e a congruência de objetivos são os principais pontos apontados como importantes na criação de uma IJV e os fatores essenciais para o sucesso da relação com o parceiro

Culture and its perception in strategic alliances, does it affect the performance? An exploratory study into Dutch-German ventures

culture, strategic alliances, performance

Ahead of the Curve: Insights for the International NGO of the Future

International NGOs have a unique and important role to play in addressing today's complex global challenges. But few of them are living up to their full potential. With support from the Hewlett Foundation, FSG researched how the most innovative INGOs are adapting to the disruptions in the global development sector and embracing four approaches to create greater impact

Collaboration in Performing Arts

__Abstract__ As a result of declining government support, performing arts organisations (PAOs) face increased challenges and difficulties in the sector. They attempt to develop new ways of generating income and seek new models of organising the production and presentation of performing arts. Hereby, we can think of collaboration and integration as horizontal and vertical within the production chain of performing arts. There are various reasons for cultural organisations to decide upon collaboration, such as increasing organisational capacity, engaging new audience and building organisational networks (Ostrower, 2005). Other reasons for deciding upon collaboration are economies of scale and stronger profiling of the performing arts organisation. Collaboration intensifies knowledge, thus the performing arts market becomes more dynamic and there is more room for experimentation. The issue or threat, however, is that not all collaboration processes are successful. According to Kottler and Scheff (1996), the organisation needs to meet several conditions in order to build an efficient collaboration: one has to set a goal-building consensus, build trust, communicate, design leadership and involvement structures, and commit adequate resources. These are the fundamental conditions but during the process of collaboration there are other issues that need to be considered. A frequent threat is that parties often have different motives to collaborate. For example, for commercial organisations the motive could be generating more profit whereas for non-profit art organisations, especially in these times, collaboration means survival. A related issue is whether collaboration aimed at surviving is a good motive for collaboration formation. Moreover, fear may exist of losing an organisation’s identity or artistic autonomy, employees may become anxious, the coordination costs might increase and parties may need additional resources and time to establish such a project. Backer (2003) summarises this dilemma in the following question: ‘How can parties control the collaboration in an efficient way while at the same time meeting their main objectives and guarding their own artistic identity?

Partner Selection: Criteria for Successful Collaborative Network

Collaboration amongst organizations plays a vital role in managing turbulent business environments particularly for small medium sized organizations which have limited resources. The emerging discipline of collaborative networks provides a platform for both the theory and practice of digital collaborative network. Selecting partner(s) for collaborative projects is the main challenge that organizations face before they can attain the advantages of collaboration. In this research, an on-line survey was conducted relating to partner selection criteria. The finding indicates that criteria such as previous track record in business, integrity and commitment are most important whereas criteria such as location and size are less important for collaborator selection

Exploring potential R&D collaboration partners through patent analysis based on bibliographic coupling and latent semantic analysis

The aim of the present research is to provide a new systematic methodology to explore potential R&D collaboration partners using patent information. The potential R&D collaboration partners are visualized as a patent assignee level-map based on technological similarity between patents by using network analysis. The proposed framework utilises two analytic methods to measure technological similarity. The first method, bibliographic coupling analysis, measures technological similarity based on the citation relationship using patent bibliographic information. Second, latent semantic analysis is utilized based on semantic similarity using patent textual information. The fuel cell membrane electrode assembly (MEA) technology field is selected and applied to illustrate the proposed methodology. The proposed approach allows firms, universities, research institutes, governments to identify potential R&D collaborators as a systematic decision-making support tool.This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Technology Analysis and Strategic Management on the 22nd of October 2014, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09537325.2014.971004. This version will be under embargo until the 22nd of April 2016