Cooperative Strategy

Surrendering Control to Gain Advantage

Conventional wisdom holds that firms must control scarce and valuable resources to obtain competitive advantage. That being said, over the past decade, many firms—among them Computer Associates, IBM, and Nokia—embarked…

Location matters: Valuing firmspecific nonmarket risk…global mining industry

We argue that mines located near environmentally sensitive water sources are subject to nonmarket risks arising from the potential collective actions of local stakeholders and their allies. Stakeholder mobilization can…

How Does a Partner’s Acquisition Affect the Value of the Firm’s Alliance with That Partner?

How does an acquisition initi-ated by a firm’s alliance partner affect the value thatthe firm can create and capture from its alliance withthat partner? We conjecture that the similarity betweenthe…

On Top of The Game When Freemium Products Succeed

Freemium products requirewidespread diffusion for their success. One way to dothis is by incorporating social features (e.g., multiplayerfunctionality, virtual collaboration, ridesharing), whichcan generate network effects and result in a productbecoming…

From product system to ecosystem: How firms adapt to provide an integrated value proposition

Ecosystems represent a key chal-lenge for established firms, shifting their focus fromproducts to system-level collaboration around integratedvalue propositions. This longitudinal case study of amachine manufacturer reports how an established firmcreated…

How to Achieve Benefits from Diversity in International Alliances?

International alliances face a dilemma. Cross-national differences offer valuable complementarities, but they can also spark a negative spiral of dysfunctional conflict. Our study shows that task discourse is an important…

Susan Perkins, Randall Morck, Bernard Yeung – Innocents Abroad

We examine international joint ventures in the telecommunications industry in Brazil, where pyramidal groups are ubiquitous. We explain how corporate governance differences between pyramidal groups versus widely held freestanding firms…

Gambardella, Panico, and Valentini on “Strategic Incentives to Human Capital”

Motivating human capital in knowledge-intensive activities is a serious managerial challenge because it is difficult to link rewards to actions or performance. Firms instead might motivate knowledge workers by offering…

The firm as an architect of polycentric governance

Emerging markets typically present additional obstacles for business operations because they lack the necessary underlying institutional infrastructure such as access to capital and labor markets. We introduce a new way…

Formal contracts and relational governance as substitutes or complements

Relational exchange arrangements supported by trust are commonly viewed as substitutes for complex contracts in interorganizational exchanges. Many argue that formal contracts actually undermine trust and thereby encourage the opportunistic…

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