Relationship Between Inter Firm Learning

Partnering with a competitor is becoming more and more common in today 's integrated, technology-based environment. This type of collaboration with a competitor is uniquely described as:

This allows them to capitalise on the core competencies of other firms, resulting in competitive advantage if successful. The major benefits of strategic alliances rather than acting independently include a new source of revenue, a vehicle for firm growth, faster responses to market opportunities, technological changes and global conditions, and grants experiences to draw new knowledge from.

Why is partnering described as the highest-quality selling relationship? Why has the building of partnerships become more important today?

The essence of a partnership is that it is collaboration amongst equals, with the recognition that by working

Cooperation, the key to successful collaborations, or the lack thereof can make or break an alliance. Lack of cooperation in alliances stems from the misaligned intentions of the partnering agencies. Additional barriers to cooperation include personal attitudes and perspectives from the managers that are brought on board (Wondolleck & Yaffee, 2000).

Managing the relationship between various parties is becoming crucial as the industry is moving from fragmented and adversarial ways of working. Under less- adversarial procurements routes and contractual arrangements such as partnering, it is essential that the parties extend commonly beneficial objectives and a high level of commitment, corporation and trust. When quarrels do occur, without

As focal firms internationalize they often run into risks that are beyond their capabilities to overcome by themselves. Consequently, many firms often conclude it makes sense to work with a strategic partner with capabilities complimentary to their own to achieve certain projects. When two or more firms come together to manage risks associated with internationalization, they form international partnerships, or international strategic alliances. By working together, focal firms use the capabilities, resources or other strengths of their partners to achieve projects they would otherwise be unable to do alone. There are two basic forms of partnerships, Equity joint ventures and Project-based collaborations. To understand the differences between these two basic types of partnerships it helps to understand how each is structured. (S. Tamer Cavusgil, Gary Knight, and John R. Riesenberger, 2012. International Business: The New Realities. Second edition, page 411).

Organizations have a range of acceptable strategies in which they can choose to manage symbiotic interdependencies; these strategies range from the less formal reputation, and cooptation to the more formal strategic alliance, and mergers and takeovers. Additionally since competition among rivals can threaten the current supply of resources and increase uncertainty within an industry organizations have multiple methods reduce the uncertainty caused by various levels of competition. These strategies also range from less to more formal and can include collusion and cartels, third-party linkage mechanisms, strategic alliances, and mergers and takeovers.

The skills and knowledge of different people are also combined during a partnership, which can greatly assist the business. Despite the advantages, having a partnership has the risk of causing disagreements and hostility among partners, as there is no authority in the business as power is equally distributed between partners. Hence, partners will have to be flexible and negotiation and discussion with other partners before making business decisions must occur.

First, cross-border alliances are motivated mainly by the need to enter new markets (Ietto-Gillies et al, 2000). By entering into an alliance, market entry can be achieved more quickly. Risk, to some extent, is also reduced because the partner firm

A joint venture is a contractual agreement joining together two or more parties for the purpose of executing a particular business undertaking (InvestorWords, 2008). Some of the most significant benefits gained from joint venturing include, a reduced risk of both companies resulting from capital and resource sharing, the opportunity to increase sales, and enhance technological capabilities through research and development underwritten by one party (INC, 2009). Joint ventures also provide a mode for entering foreign markets because the partnering companies join complementary skills and knowhow with local firms (Qiu, 1984). Companies often jump into joint venture agreements blinded by these benefits and often fail to research the risks

A concern from both sides was product overlap. Lack of competition between the two sides was a key factor for success. For instance, the HP-Microsoft alliance worked because the two companies were never really competing. This was not the case for the HP-Cisco alliance. The alliance would not work if both sides were secretly hoping that the other partner would go out of business. There were some areas still where HP and Cisco were competing due to product overlap. To try to find a solution to the product overlap, it was critical that sales managers from both organizations met on a local and regional level. Cisco sales personnel would attend HP sales manager meetings, and vice versa.

4) Operational Synergies- For FM, reaching out to an international customer base, benefits from economies scale through production, and learning innovative competences were the primary reason why they engaged in alliances. For example, FM gained a significant portion of Codel’s

Two long standing rival companies understood the benefits of collaboration. As Intrieri discusses in an article on The Effective use of

Joint venture agreements are one of the most practical uses of a shareholders’ agreement. A joint venture may be formed between two or more persons or entities, and is used when the intended project is beyond the resources of the individual venturers, or where strategic alliances or cross-border arrangements are anticipated.10 Among other ways, joint ventures can be implemented by the incorporation of a limited liability company or the creation of a partnership. The corporate structure is often favored by joint venturers but the partnership or the contractual routes may be more appropriate for