The impact of inter-firm cooperation on performance: A two-region experience

Abstract

The management literature provides extensive coverage of the different motives and factors that encourage companies to cooperate and adhere to cooperative relationships. Nielsen (1988), who influenced a wide body of authors (Heide and Miner 1992; Parkhe 1993; Hagedoorn and Schakenraad 1994; Mohr and Spekman 1994; Gulati 1995; Browning et al. 1995; Holm et al. 1999; Afuah 2009), seeks to demonstrate that cooperative strategies may ethically boost organisational efficiency in various circumstances. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, he sets out the utility of cooperative strategies within the scope of concepts such as the environmental life cycle, generic strategies and aggregating value before concluding that strategies involving cooperation between major corporations may be more efficient than external market mechanisms. Hence, cooperative strategies are susceptible to enhancing organisational efficiency in various different market scenarios.