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Executive Summary
In recent years, international strategic business cooperation has attracted great attention in both international management theory and practice. Several prominent examples demonstrate that interfirm alliances can no longer be viewed as second-best solutions but must be recognized as efficient forms of internationalization.
In this article, the specific management problems of international strategic business cooperation are analyzed and a systematic approach for their solution is presented. After outlining three examples that represent three different forms of international strategic business cooperation, a conceptual framework is developed that integrates three different perspectives: situational conditions, management instruments, and performance criteria. In the main part of the article, five success factors of international strategic business cooperation (partner selection, cooperation agreement, management structure, acculturation process, and knowledge management) are discussed. The article ends with a short summary and implications for further research. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
STRATEGIC BUSINESS COOPERATION IN INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT THEORY
For a long time, international management theory did not place much emphasis on the study of international business cooperation. In most cases, collaborations were viewed as second-best solutions, for example, in countries where the investment regulations do not allow the establishment of wholly-owned foreign subsidiaries (e.g., Beamish, 1988; Franko, 1971; Harrigan, 1986). Moreover, they were perceived to have a negative impact on competitiveness. For example, in his study on the competitive advantage of nations, Porter (1990, p. 67) concludes that "alliances appear to be most common among secondtier competitors or companies trying to catch up ... (while) global leaders rarely if ever rely on a partner for assets and skills essential to competitive advantage."
In recent years, however, the attention paid to international cooperation has increased, in both international management theory and practice. Perlmutter & Heenan (1986), for example, argue that increased global competition underlines the necessity to achieve worldwide economies of scale and to cope with internationally diversified customers. In their opinion, only firms that cooperate across national borders will be able to meet these new challenges and compete globally. According to a study by Dyer, Kale, and Singh (2001), the 500 largest firms in the world have an average of 60 major cooperation agreements each.
International strategic cooperation has at least three distinct purposes:
1. Scale advantages. Cooperation allows the partner firms...