Strategic alliances with intangible assets : special reference to brand alllances

Brand allianees are more widespread than current aeademie research would seen to suggest, and the reality seems to indicate that this type of allianees between companies will undergo unsuspeeted growth in the years to come. This paper will attempt to help fill this literature gap by analyzing and developing the eoneept of the brand alliance on the basis of Williamson's transaetion eost theory and the brand identity models presented by Aaker (1996), Upshaw (1995) and Kapferer (1992). In addition, it will diseuss the problems inherent in this type of allianee, primarily as regards eomplementarily and eonsistency between the brands. To this end, and analytieal model will be developed based on Kapferer's "Identity Prims" (1992) and Rao and Ruekert's brand allianee evaluation model (1994). This model will be used to seleet potential brands for a possible alliance, evaluate this seleetion and track the alliance's value. Finally, we will diseuss the limitations inherent in this work and will suggest potential future areas of research that would be of interest within the field of brand managemen

Cross-divisional innovation in large, multi-divisional firms: Economic relevance and managerial actions

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What Are the Useful Past Inter-Organizational Relationships (IORs) for Forming Complex IORs?

Purpose: The purpose is to explore the relationship between prior and later inter-organizational relationships (IORs) by studying whether past experience can be leveraged on when forming new, more complex, IORs. Methodology: Participation in prior IORs is characterized in terms of both resource- transferring and resource-pooling IORs in home-country networks, while complex IORs are considered those with foreign partners. An empirical test on 366 Italian firms is performed using OLS with robust standard errors. Findings: Both resource-transferring and resource-pooling IORs have non-convergent effects. The former has controversial effects on the base of the position a firm occupies, that in turn affects the structure of interests between the partners. The latter has different effects in line with the information complexity of the objective of the relationship. Research Implications: Results provide support to the idea that structure of interests and information complexity represent \u201cdiscriminating characteristics\u201d that identify salient structural alternatives in the analysis of inter-firm organization. Practical Implications: The paper advances that firms can partially leverage on the exploitation of prior experience in settings that are explorative in nature, by carefully selecting within past experiences. Originality: A distinction between coordination \u201cgiving\u201d and coordination \u201ctaking\u201d IORs is proposed to discern among different types of inter-firm coordination forms

The Two Facets of Collaboration: Cooperation and Coordination in Strategic Alliances

This paper unpacks two underspecified facets of collaboration: cooperation and coordination. Prior research has emphasized cooperation, and specifically the partners' commitment and alignment of interests, as the key determinant of collaborative success. Scholars have paid less attention to the critical role of coordination—the effective alignment and adjustment of the partners' actions. To redress this imbalance, we conceptually disentangle cooperation and coordination in the context of inter-organizational collaboration, and examine how the two phenomena play out in the partner selection, design, and post-formation stages of an alliance's life cycle. As we demonstrate, a coordination perspective helps resolve some empirical puzzles, but it also represents a challenge to received wisdom grounded in the salience of cooperation. To stimulate future research, we discuss alternative conceptualizations of the relationship between cooperation and coordination, and elaborate on their normative implications

Roles played by relational trust in strategic alliances

In this paper we develop the concept of relational quality as a proxy for relational trust. Exploration of data from 67 alliances confirms that relational quality is composed of three elements: initial conditions, partner interactions, and external events. We offer propositions on the relative importance of each of these elements depending on the different roles relational trust may play in strategic alliances: the role of a control mechanism, of a governance mechanism, or as an enabler of high risk initiativesManagement; Strategy

Understanding collaborative supply chain relationships through the application of the Williamson organisational failure framework

Many researchers have studied supply chain relationships however, the preponderance of open markets situations and ‘industry-style’ surveys have reduced the empirical focus on the dynamics of long-term, collaborative dyadic relationships. Within the supply chain the need for much closer, long-term relationships is increasing due to supplier rationalisation and globalisation (Spekman et al, 1998) and more information about these interactions is required. The research specifically tested the well-accepted Williamson’s (1975) Economic Organisations Failure Framework as a theoretical model through which long term collaborative relationships can be

The interplay of competition and cooperation

Research streams on competition and cooperation are central to the field of strategic management but have evolved independently. The emerging literature on coopetition has brought attention to the phenomenon of simultaneous competition and cooperation, yet the interplay between the two has remained under-researched. We offer a roadmap for studying this interplay, which identifies some of its antecedents and consequences, highlights debates concerning the nature of competition and cooperation and the association between the two, and directs attention to the tension between competition and cooperation and the alternative approaches for managing this tension. We discuss the broader implications of the interplay, note some intriguing open questions, offer directions for future research, and present an organizing framework for the interplay of competition and cooperation

The explanatory power of trust and commitment and stakeholders' salience : their influence on the reverse logistics programs performance

There is a growing awareness among practitioners and scholars regarding the importance of Relationship Marketing and its advantages in the supply chain management context. This is particularly appropriate for Reverse Logistics (RL) activities, which are characterized by several relationships between different stakeholders and the firm. Drawing on multiple theoretical approaches, we propose that RL programs result from the combination of external, organizational, and individual factors. We emphasize the role of trust and commitment as key influential elements on the RL systems implementation and their subsequent performance

Knowledge acquisition in supply chain partnerships: The role of power

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in International Journal of Production Economics. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2013 Elsevier B.V.Knowledge is recognised as an important source of competitive advantage and hence there has been increasing academic and practitioner interest in understanding and isolating the factors that contribute to effective knowledge transfer between supply chain actors. The literature identifies power as a salient contributor to the effective operation of a supply chain partnership. However, there is a paucity of empirical research examining how power among actors influences knowledge acquisition and in turn the performance of supply chain partners. The aim of this research is to address this gap by examining the relationship between power, knowledge acquisition and supply chain performance among the supply chain partners of a focal Chinese steel manufacturer. A structured survey was used to collect the necessary data. Two conceptually independent variables – ‘availability of alternatives’ and ‘restraint in the use of power’ – were used to assess actual and realised power, respectively. Controlling for contingencies, we found that the flow of knowledge increased when supply chain actors had limited alternatives and when the more powerful actor exercised restraint in the use of power. Moreover, we found a positive relationship between knowledge acquisition and supply chain performance. This paper enriches the literature by empirically extending our understanding of how power affects knowledge acquisition and performance

Does the number of partners in SME multi-partners alliances influence use of governance mechanisms?

Despite a strong proliferation of SME multi-partner alliances in last two decades, we know relatively little about their governance and management. Increase in the number of partners in SME multi-partner alliance introduces additional complexities of managing an alliance, and the appropriate governance mechanism for different SME multi-partner alliance is likely to differ. The aim of this paper is to examine the suitability of contractual and relational governance in the multi-partner alliances based on their size