Cooperative Strategy: Economic, Business, and Organizational Issues. . - Other Reviews - book review

Administrative Science Quarterly, March, 2002 by Gautham Ahuja

The chapters in part 3 focus on the process elements of cooperation. In chapter 8, Doz and Baburoglu develop a process model of the emergence and evolution of R&D cooperatives between competitors. They present a rich and detailed picture of the various subprocesses and preconditions in effective cooperation and provide some empirical support for the model through a comparative case analysis of several leading collaborative ventures in the semiconductor industry. In chapter 9, Boddy, Macbeth, and Wagner use a detailed case study of supply-chain partnering to develop a more broadly applicable model for implementing a cooperative strategy. Central to their contribution is the identification of five related but distinct sets of agendas that must be managed for cooperative relationships to be successful. In chapter 10, Kern and Willcocks use relational contract, transaction-costs, and interorganizational relationships perspectives to examine large-scale information-technology out-sourcing at Xerox. Their identific ation of nine critical dimensions and the links between them reveal the complexity of the cooperative process. In the last two chapters of this part, the focus shifts to the assessment of collaborative outcomes. In chapter 11, Gray argues that collaborative endeavors and their impacts can be pursued with many theoretical orientations and objectives, each of which may necessitate examining different indicators of collaboration and its outcomes. She examines five conceptual perspectives, each focused on a different collaborative outcome (such as achieving strategic objectives versus creating social capital) to highlight the notion that the selection of the most appropriate perspective will depend on the problem domain, the type of collaboration, and the audience for whom the assessment is being done. In chapter 12, Reuer and Koza focus on one commonly used assessment of collaborative impact, joint venture stability, and draw attention to the dangers and limitations of this particular form of assessment. Consist ent with Gray's insights above, they highlight the importance of contingency arguments and the need to use a broader corporate strategy perspective in assessing the impact of collaboration.

The focus in part 4 shifts to the micro-foundations of collaboration, the human aspect of the cooperative process. In chapter 13, Pitkethly, Faulkner, and Child examine national differences in acquisition integration and find that the level of post-acquisition integration varies with the nationality of the acquiring firm, with American firms preferring to integrate acquired companies most tightly and Japanese firms being the least integrationist. In chapter 14, 01k and Farley describe the nature and types of interpersonal exchange relationships in alliances and relate these to other contextual conditions of the alliance, such as the technology, organization structure, and institutional environment involved. The notion of trust that underlies exchange relationships is also tackled in the next two chapters. In chapter 15, Currall and Inkpen explore trust at three distinct levels--interpersonal, intergroup, and interfirm--and explicate conceptual, analysis, and measurement issues inherent in studying trust at th ese three levels. In chapter 16, Faulkner analyzes different levels or forms of trust itself--calculative, predictive, and affective--and uses a series of case studies to explore the degree to which trust and control are complementary mechanisms in cooperative ventures.