Over the past few decades, alliance and networks have been generally examined individually. This Handbook sheds new light on this research by combining the two topics and focuses on highlighting their similarities. The expert contributors discuss topics surrounding the state-of-the-art in alliance and network research such as organizing opportunities in international entrepreneurship; transaction costs in alliances and joint ventures; diaspora networks; and national culture and international alliances. They go on to look at conceptual developments relating to born globals; subsidiary performance; internationalisation; and knowledge transfer and organisational learning. Finally, they present empirical evidence of international alliances and networks. They combine diverse types of studies including literature reviews, conceptual papers and empirical studies in order to provide the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the topic. Researchers with an interest in joint ventures and alliance and networks, along with students and academics of international business will find this book to be a valuable resource. Contributors: S. Andersson, U. Andersson, A. Arslan, G.B. Awuah, P Ekman, M. Elo, C. Erixon, N. Evers, P.N. Ghauri, M. Hilmersson, M. Hsia-Wen Ho, M. Johanson, V. Kaartemo, J. Larimo, C. Lopez-Duarte, H. Lundberg, T. Mainela, H. Makkonen, M. Marinov, S.T. Marinova, L.-G. Mattsson, H. Merchant, K.E. Meyer, N. Mirc, N. Nummela, R. Olkkonen, U.F. Ott, S. Papaioannou, E. Pernu, V. Puhakka, P.A. Ryan, S. Saarenketo, A. Salmi, P. Servais, A. Smith, A. Thyr, L. Torkkeli, P. Very, M.M. Vidal-Suarez, Y. Wang

By bringing together their respective competencies and resources for the greater good, governments, business, civil society and multilateral agencies have been seeking innovative ways to work together to respond to the myriad global challenges of our time: the impact of climate change; human security; the prevention, care and treatment of HIV/AIDS and other major diseases; the generation of new investment, entrepreneurship and employment; and financing for development. The appetite for such partnerships appears strong. Over 90% of corporate executives responding to a World Economic Forum survey felt that future partnerships between business, government and civil society would play either a major role or some role in addressing key development challenges. This trend will only be increased by the Western financial crisis and the retreat of the state from many areas of societal concern.

In today's world of interconnected and "always-on" information, companies that succeed are those that compete by leveraging strategic control points. A strategic control point is a part of a market that, if controlled by one party, can be used to leverage power elsewhere. This can occur throughout the supply chain, in a related business, or even in an unrelated market The Carrot and the Stick uses detailed examples and case studies - ranging from historic cases like Vanderbilt's railroad in New York to current cases like Amazon's control of the value chain - to explain how finding and leveraging points of strategic control can be the key to success in today's convergent, fast-paced markets. The book focuses on how to spot and own potential points of strategic control, how to extend them to multiple markets, what tools and processes can be implemented in order to utilize the principle in practice, and how to "pry loose" existing points of strategic control owned by others. Applicable to all industries, this book can help alter business outcomes.

Innovation studies and partnering/collaborative alliances are rapidly growing areas of interest. Originally combining the two areas, this book examines the role of business partnering as a pathway to innovation for small and medium enterprises - SMEs. This text outlines global and regional trends, focusing in particular on the role of Poland and Eastern Europe as an emerging region for new innovative ideas, how innovation is promoted in the United States, and how it is facilitated in Japan. It assesses the reasons why American SMEs are significantly ahead of their European counterparts in the fields of research and development investment and innovation, and demonstrates how business partnering can assist in increasing research and development investment, profit, finding new suppliers and aiding growth. In addition, the book shows how business partners can cut the costs of doing research for innovation and analyzes the threat that poorly constructed and over-burdensome regulation and bureaucracy pose to innovation. This book is a timely contribution to the literature on both innovation and business partnering in Japan, Europe and the United States.

The Brand-Driven CEO demonstrates how senior leadership can use their brand to align and guide the behaviors, decisions, and operations of their entire organization in order to drive value. David Kincaid delivers practical assessments and game plans for senior executives and managers across functional areas, clarifying the confusion between brand and marketing management. He introduces the "New 4Ps" of brand management: People, Process, Intellectual Property, and Partnerships. This paradigm shift equips business leaders with a new approach to managing growth, profitability, risk, and sustainable value. Using real-life, current case studies from today's fastest growing and most valuable brands - including Starbucks, Apple, and BMW - this book reveals the critical importance of managing big businesses as integrated business systems. The Brand-Driven CEO includes criteria to conduct your own brand self-assessment and a stepby-step roadmap that can be applied to help transform your brand and its management.

Although published thirty years ago this book accurately predicted that joint-ventures would become an increasingly prominent feature on the corporate landscape. This book, based on the experience of managers in both successful and unsuccessful joint ventures has been written expressly to help managers improve the performance of their joint ventures. It discusses the area of joint venture design and management including the management of ventures between corporations and government bodies.

Despite the pressure for local councils to follow the lead of the private sector and develop shared service and partnership arrangements, the barriers in terms of culture, differences in priorities across councils and lack of experience are formidable - yet this is the most likely source of meeting government targets for reduced overheads and improved organizational effectiveness. By using extensive case studies drawn from across local councils in England, Ray Tomkinson explains the implications of sharing service delivery, addresses concerns about loss of control and accountability, and demonstrates the potential advantages. He shows how to set up collaborative ventures, formal partnerships, shared service centres or special purpose vehicles, while pointing out possible pitfalls, thus enabling senior managers to follow all the necessary project steps to create an appropriate shared service. It seeks to examine the evidence of the cost, effectiveness and quality improvements achieved from sharings. This ground-breaking book has been written for everyone in local government; it explores the political and cultural barriers, and legislative/legal framework for joint workings, explains how to find an appropriate governance vehicle, and how to gain the commitment of partners. It deals with political and managerial concerns, risk aversion and parochial issues, and the possible impact on the reputation and performance of both sharers. Shared Services in Local Government is the only comprehensive study for the UK and it will ensure any public sector organization pursuing this route is able to approach the task of creating a shared service with a real understanding of the issues involved.

Innovation studies and partnering/collaborative alliances are rapidly growing areas of interest. Originally combining the two areas, this book examines the role of business partnering as a pathway to innovation for small and medium enterprises - SMEs. This text outlines global and regional trends, focusing in particular on the role of Poland and Eastern Europe as an emerging region for new innovative ideas, how innovation is promoted in the United States, and how it is facilitated in Japan. It assesses the reasons why American SMEs are significantly ahead of their European counterparts in the fields of research and development investment and innovation, and demonstrates how business partnering can assist in increasing research and development investment, profit, finding new suppliers and aiding growth. In addition, the book shows how business partners can cut the costs of doing research for innovation and analyzes the threat that poorly constructed and over-burdensome regulation and bureaucracy pose to innovation. This book is a timely contribution to the literature on both innovation and business partnering in Japan, Europe and the United States.

The competence-based perspective on strategy and management emerged in the 1990s as a new approach to developing strategy and management theory and practice. In the past decade, the focus on organizational competences -- and the resources, capabilities, and processes that create competences -- has provided a highly productive "broad church" for theory development, research, and practice in both strategic and general management.

Authored by a multidisciplinary group of scholars and practitioners working within the competence perspective, the papers in this volume contribute to developing a better theoretical and practical understanding of interfirm interactions that significantly affect an organization's competences. The papers present both theoretical developments and empirical research based on a variety of case studies and other research in diverse industrial and geographical contexts.

The papers in this volume develop three themes. Part I includes papers that address the key issues of managing activities in an organization's competence building and leveraging processes that span the boundaries of two organizations. The papers in Part II investigate the role of networks and strategic alliances in competence building and leveraging processes. Part III presents papers that investigate competitive interactions between firms in their competence leveraging activities.

Hailed by some as fundamental pillar of global governance, and criticized by others as manifestation of 'top-down globalism', multi-stakeholder partnerships have become the new mantra of policy-makers around the globe. However, our understanding of what drives success and failure in these hybrid institutions remains scetchy and incomplete. This book will introduce a production theory of partnering which describes how the contributions actors add to a partnership are translated into results. The objective of this new perspective on collaboration is to make sense of the complex dynamics partnerships face and to derive fundamental propositions on how governance structures should be designed to make partnerships succeed.

This edited book explores how stakeholders play a key part in any entrepreneurial endeavour because of their investment in the outcome. This book highlights that it is important to understand the reason and rationale for stakeholder engagement in entrepreneurship. Furthermore, this book showcases how there are different kinds of stakeholders from businesses directly linked to an entity to others that have a more policy influence on the industry segment. This book demonstrates that it is useful to understand to what extent stakeholders influence entrepreneurial decision making. This book states that most stakeholders tend to take an indirect role in the governance of a business in terms of what strategic decisions are made. This can change in times of crisis or change depending on the nature of the relationship. This book makes the case that stakeholders can take positive action in the form of advice or help. This book asserts that stakeholders who have an ongoing direct role are likely to invest more time and effort in an entrepreneurial endeavour. This book uncovers that it is important to re-evaluate on a continual basis whether the relationship is working and what needs to be done in order to increase efficiency. This edited book focuses on the role of stakeholders in an entrepreneurial context thereby being amongst the first research books to place specific attention on stakeholder management through public and private partnerships.

Networks of firms have been in the focus of management research for several years. Recently, special attention has been paid to so-called business webs. Business webs are networks of firms which provide complements to a common product architecture. In the past, research focused on management issues of such webs but neglected the important question of how they actually came into being. The present book explicitly examines the formation and early growth of business webs. The author illustrates the early growth phases with two in-depth cases of the formation of the wireless internet ecosystem i-mode and the leading person-to-person online auction platform eBay. The book uncovers the contingencies under which the establishment of business webs is likely to succeed. Business researchers will benefit from the theoretical framework, while interested business managers will find explanations and advice for establishing a business web.

Collaboration between organizations on different continents can raise issues of economic development, health, the environment, risk sharing, supply chain efficiency and human resource management. It is an activity that can touch upon almost every aspect of business and social life. In this notable text, the authors combine rigorous theory with practical examples to create a useful, practical, one-stop resource covering topics such as:

• the principles of the theory of collaborative advantage
• managing aims
• membership structures and dynamics
• issues of identity
• using the theory.

The key features of the book include rich theory, drawn directly from practice, explained in simple language, and a coherently developed understanding of the challenges of collaboration, based on careful research. This significant text will be an invaluable reference for all students, academics and managers studying or working in collaboration.

This book gives students a new perspective on entrepreneurial venturing in an international context. By analyzing the dynamics in international companies, they will be armed with the skills they need to build successful strategies for entering new international markets. Williams presents a framework built around four contexts for international venturing: headquarters-driven through internal capabilities; subsidiary-driven through peripheral capabilities; headquarters-driven through external capabilities; and subsidiary-driven though external capabilities. Through this, students gain insight into the conditions that enable venturing in different types of MNEs, the mechanisms by which MNEs pursue international opportunities, and the leadership and managerial challenges of developing entrepreneurial capabilities across borders. Following a definition and analysis of each context, the book synthesizes the outcomes in an integrative way, providing implications for strategic leaders in international firms as well as for researchers and students. These contexts are used to frame the literature and engage with eight topical cases, which are also published in full in the Appendix of the book. With case studies from around the world that focus both on smaller and larger enterprises, Venturing in International Firms will give students of international entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship and international business an edge when venturing internationally in the real world.

Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) promise much and present an exciting policy option. Yet as this Handbook reveals there is still much debate about the meaning of partnership, and the degree to which potential advantages are in fact being delivered. In this timely Handbook, leading scholars from around the world explore the challenges presented by infrastructure PPPs, and contemplate what lies ahead as governments balance the need to provide innovative new infrastructure against the requirement for good public governance. This Handbook builds on a range of exciting theoretical lenses that span several disciplinary boundaries. It presents innovative insights and informed perspectives from an international base of empirical evidence. This essential Handbook will prove an invaluable reference work for academics, advanced post-graduate students and commentators of PPPs, as well as professionals, infrastructure regulators and government policy advisors.

Negotiation is a process that permeates our everyday lives. From international conflicts to corporate mergers, from labor contracts to distribution agreements, and from one-time job offers to the day-to-day of relationships, negotiation is one of the most common ways to reach agreement on disputed issues and resources. Though negotiation is challenging in the simplest of circumstances, a group context can make it even more complex: groups negotiating with other groups may argue among themselves; factions and coalitions may develop, leading to side deals or the obstruction of deals in progress; and, the interests and preferences of all parties become much harder to identify, much less satisfy. In this fourteenth volume of the "Research on Managing Groups and Teams" series, nine chapters examine the particular challenges, opportunities, and dynamics that confront groups engaged in negotiation. The volume will be of particular interest to readers and scholars from management, psychology, sociology, communications, law, political science, and public policy.

Collaboration between organizations on different continents can raise issues of economic development, health, the environment, risk sharing, supply chain efficiency and human resource management. It is an activity that can touch upon almost every aspect of business and social life. In this notable text, the authors combine rigorous theory with practical examples to create a useful, practical, one-stop resource covering topics such as:

• the principles of the theory of collaborative advantage
• managing aims
• membership structures and dynamics
• issues of identity
• using the theory.

The key features of the book include rich theory, drawn directly from practice, explained in simple language, and a coherently developed understanding of the challenges of collaboration, based on careful research. This significant text will be an invaluable reference for all students, academics and managers studying or working in collaboration.

This textbook offers theories, terminology, common approaches and current issues in international business development. It covers the full range from strategic considerations to setting up supply chains and sales channels in a globalized world. In addition, a closer look into issues of social responsibility and cultural aspects of international business is presented. A particular feature is the focus on Business to Business contexts of international management. The authors with their varied backgrounds from academia as well as industry offer insights into topics such as (frugal) innovation, legal aspects of launching products internationally, ecosystem evaluations, market assessments, political coverage for international ventures, project management standards, sales approaches as well as digital communication. Case studies illustrate the theoretical content. Early career practitioners will find this book to be a good resource. This textbook has been recommended and developed for university courses in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Managers in international joint ventures work with resources contributed by investors from multiple nationalities. Fan Wu shows through a series of experimental studies among students and managers from China, South Korea, Germany, and the USA that cultural affinity between the manager and one of the investors and career perspectives with one of the investors are strongly motivating managers to make biased decisions. The two mechanisms can be used to balance each other out in staffing key positions in international joint ventures for optimal control over managerial decisions.

This volume provides in-depth understanding about business-to-business (B2B) and organizational relationships. Studies included identify real-life relationship paradoxes and explain how firms manage - not solve - these paradoxes. Two research reports are the result of three years of intensive face-to-face data collection of how interfirm relations form, operate, and change. They include unedited direct quotes from suppliers, focal firms, and customers on their interfirm relationships and provide a profound understanding of quality relationships. Additional articles include: Discourses in Organizational Culture; Organizational Innovation and Outcomes in SMEs; Anatomy of Relationship Significance; a review of Markets-as-Networks Theory; and Meta-theories in Research. The volume highlights that making mistakes is inherent in organizational innovations and understanding how organizations work through such mistakes is an important key to understanding success versus failure in innovation outcomes. It provides rich descriptions on how B2B networks form, function and develop and is for readers who want to delve into how B2B relationships actually work and, frequently, do not work.

Human Rights after Corporate Personhood offers a rich overview of current debates, and seeks to transcend the "outrage response" often found in public discourse and corporate legal theory. Through original and innovative analyses, the volume offers an alternative account of corporate juridical personality and its relation to the human, one that departs from accounts offered by public law. In addition, it explores opportunities for the application of legal personality to assist progressive projects, including, but not limited to, environmental justice, animal rights, and Indigenous land claims. Presented accessibly for the benefit of non-specialist readers, the volume offers original arguments and draws on eclectic sources, from law and poetry to fiction and film. At the same time, it is firmly grounded in legal scholarship and, thus, serves as an essential reference for scholars, students, lawmakers, and anyone seeking a better understanding of the interface between corporations and the law in the twenty-first century.

Today everyone talks about collaboration. It's the buzzword of the 21st century. From collaboration in the boardroom, to the conference room, across industries, geographies and culture, it is indeed the leadership capability needed to build business alliances and partnerships and tackle the world's toughest challenges. From product design to the sourcing of raw materials, and across channel relationships, partnerships and alliances are interwoven across all supply and demand elements of corporate value creation. Even non-for-profits, NGO's and Public Entities seek alliances and partnerships to meet the needs of an increasingly interdependent and interconnected humanity. In this cutting-edge work and first-ever how-to guide for building successful collaborations, Martin Echavarria, a business collaboration expert sets out to improve the success rates of strategic alliances and partnerships to become more competitive, more nimble, and more innovative. To do this, he introduces us to a framework that combines a collaborative leadership methodology with a breakthrough alliance development process applied to any industry or size of partnering organizations. Applying his unique approach, collaboration emerges as teams work to develop business alliances. In turn they become resilient to change and able to capitalize on innovative-co-created-opportunities. This book is an essential guide for any innovator who is interested in driving tremendous value and success for themselves and their companies in this new world of global business alliances.

This short, reader-friendly book is about best practice in joint ventures: the factors and processes which lead to success. Every year, corporations establish thousands of joint ventures (JVs), investing hundreds of billions of dollars. In fact, between 25% and 40% of all foreign investments take place via equity JVs. The use of JVs and strategic alliances has been rapidly growing. I've worked as a joint venture facilitator for Fortune 500 and other corporations for many years. The senior executives in these organizations often noted that the decision-making format I used with them would make a great book. This is it. The key purpose of the book is to demonstrate that joint ventures can work. They require however an open mind, and the willingness to work through a series of questions I provide. These relate to: testing the strategic logic; partnership and fit; shape and design; and operating the JV. Contrary to the perceptions of some, JVs can be just as profitable and survive just as long as wholly owned subsidiaries. They can in fact be effectively managed, and they are not going to cause a firm to lose its proprietary technology.Partnerships can work extremely well, and often, placing less emphasis on ""control"" is the way to go. If one is willing to acknowledge and respect that someone else (here a partner) has much to contribute, a stronger enterprise can result. True JVs can result in more stable and sustainable business, benefiting all partners, in whatever country they are located. The format of the book is intentionally conversational. It uses the Socratic method (question, answer, question, answer) which works so effectively in a case study classroom. Here the ""classroom"" is several business class seats on an international flight. This book is written for practicing managers and executives. Those contemplating the formation of a JV and those currently engaged in JVs will see improvement in the duration and performance of their collaborative ventures by following the recommended actions. A second audience is business schools and academics. The book is ideal for MBA, executive MBA and non-degree executive education courses or modules focused on JVs, alliances, cooperative strategies, etc.

Collaboration between nonprofits and businesses is a necessary component of strategy and operations. Creating Value in Nonprofit-Business Collaborations: New Thinking & Practice provides breakthrough thinking about how to conceptualize and realize collaborative value. With over a hundred case examples from around the globe and hundreds of literature references, the book reveals how collaboration between businesses and nonprofit organizations can most effectively co-create significant economic, social, and environmental value for society, organizations, and individuals. This essential resource features the ground-breaking Collaborative Value Creation framework that can be used for analyzing the sources, forms, and processes of value creation in partnerships between businesses and nonprofits. The book is a step-by-step guide for business managers and non-profit practitioners for achieving successful cross-sector partnerships. It examines the key dimensions of the Collaborative Mindset that shape each partner's collaborative efforts. It analyzes the drivers of partnership evolution along the Collaboration Continuum, and sets forth the key pathways in the Collaboration Process Value Chain. The book concludes by offering Twelve Smart Practices of Collaborative Value Creation for the design and management of cross sector partnerships. The book will empower organizations to strategically increase the potential for value creation both for the partners and society. Praise for Creating Value in Nonprofit-Business Collaborations: New Thinking & Practice! "This is a playbook for enabling business and nonprofits to co-create shared value. These new types of collaborations about creating value, rather than the tense standoffs of the past, are part of the way we will create actual solutions to society's challenges." Michael J. Porter, Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, Harvard Business School "Co-creating value is a powerful concept Jim Austin and May Seitanidi are sharing with us that will bring business and non-profit leaders to a new level of understanding and performance. This new book is the indispensable guidebook for leaders of the future." Frances Hesselbein, Founding President and CEO of the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute, Former CEO of the Girl Scouts of America, and Holder of Presidential Medal of Freedom "I love the book! While it focuses on "cross sector" collaboration, it should be read by every executive in the "for-profit" sector. Business is about how to collaborate with stakeholders to create value. This book tells you how to do it. Bravo!" R. Edward Freeman, University Professor and Olsson Professor The Darden School University of Virginia "Finally a book that demystifies what is probably the single most indispensable strategy for advancing social change: cross sector collaboration that creates genuine, measurable value for all. The book is an original and valuable resource for both the nonprofit and business sectors, providing a promising new roadmap that shows how to go beyond fighting for one's share of the pie, to collaboration that actually makes the pie grow." Billy Shore, Founder and CEO of Share Our Strength and Chairman of Community Wealth Ventures "Professors Austin and Seitanidi provide essential guidance for managers determining how to produce benefits for their organizations and high impact for society. This is an informed, thoughtful, and practical analysis." Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School and author of SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth and Social Good