This study proposes criteria to diagnose, to analyse and to evaluate the extent of cooperation and collaboration between supply chain members within extensive inter-firm relationships in supply chains. A case study context examines cooperative and collaborative relationships between shipping companies and shippers as suppliers, manufacturers, distributers, retailers, exporters and importers. The components of cooperation and collaboration are analysed through literature reviews, interviews with industrial experts, content analysis, two-rounds of Q-sorting, and pilot testing. Cooperation is a subset of collaboration comprised of transparency, fairness, and mutuality, and cooperation and “relational strength” such as trust and sustainability constitute collaboration. A questionnaire survey generated 167 responses from shipping companies in South Korea. Exploratory factor analysis underpinned cooperative and collaborative spirit indices (CCSIs) that varied within the shipping industry, types of shipping registered, and vessel types. Confirmatory factor analysis supported good model fit, convergent and discriminant validity, and unidimensionality. A “target coefficient” identified second order factors and path analysis showed that fairness, mutuality and cooperation can foster trust, and mutual trust can cultivate sustainability although transparency does not necessarily lead to trust. CCSIs indicated modest cooperation and collaboration in the shipping industry and MANOVA revealed differences according to vessel types and contract periods. This research clarifies theories of cooperation. Enhanced CCSIs between shippers and shipping companies imply that shippers should extend two-way communication, mutuality, distributive fairness and sustainability with shipping companies. Maintaining relationships brings long run benefits. Further, shipping companies should continuously strive to gain trust from shippers and government should organise consultative groups, develop and disseminate exemplary cases and foster institutions to promote collaboration. The constructs and items deployed herein are generic, implying that the research model and CCSIs methods will be widely applicable.

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With the coming of digital times, global competition resulted in every industry expanding their requirements in supply chain integration and enterprise resource planning. The importance of information system integration industries also increases with time. When all kind of industries continues to integrate supply chain and establish cooperative partnerships, trying to exploit cooperation to acquire more competencies in the market, we want to know whether the information system integration industries establish their cooperative relationship. Therefore, our study tried to review the actives and relationship between integrators by the systems integration service process. Through the theory¡¦s guiding, we attend to induce the factors of inter-firm cooperation in system integration industries. We use multiple case study to design our research¡Aand select three cases to study. Semi-structural interview is used to collect needed data to understand the true cooperative relationship between integrators. According to transaction cost theory, resource-base theory and social exchange theory, we propose some theoretical propositions to guiding the real cases analysis. The conclusions not only describe the real cooperation in Taiwan system integration industries, but also induce several factors of cooperative relationship between integrators, including product characteristics, transaction cost, resource, trust and guanxi. Moreover, the transaction cost is the most important element in the cooperative relationship between information system integrators.

Yes / This article examines the mediating mechanism of the relationship between institutional voids (IVs) and inter-firm cooperation and the moderating role of economic adversity in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) based in emerging markets. The hypotheses are tested using time-lagged survey data from 214 SMEs from Ghana. The findings provide support for the hypotheses by showing that (1) IVs positively influence the use of government research and development (R&D) support, (2) the use of government R&D support mediates the relationship between IVs and inter-firm cooperation, and (3) economic adversity positively moderates the relationship between IVs and the use of government R&D support. The findings contribute to understanding the role of IVs in inter-firm cooperation. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Les partenariats d’exploration constituent, pour les organisations contemporaines, une opportunité pour ouvrir leur portefeuille partenarial et coopérer sur des objets de plus en plus innovants et transversaux. Mais ces nouvelles formes de partenariats R&D sont déstabilisées par leur nature même : les objets de coopération ne sont pas connus ex-ante et doivent donc être conçus durant la coopération.A partir de l’étude d’un partenariat transectoriel technologique, MINATEC IDEAs Laboratory, cette thèse explique comment des partenaires différents parviennent finalement à s’accorder sur des sujets de coopération et à lancer des projets d’innovation.Pour comprendre et modéliser l’élaboration progressive de ces objets de coopération, nous proposons le modèle Matching/Building. Basé sur une extension de la théorie de conception C-K, ce modèle rend compte de la manière dont des acteurs développent et modifient leurs propres raisonnements de conception durant leurs interactions.De plus, cette recherche expose les résultats de deux instruments de gestion qui facilitent la génération de la coopération : OPERA, un outil de cartographie pour piloter des champs d'innovation et représenter l'évolution des objets de coopération et la méthode D4 qui permet de co-innover en revisitant collectivement l’identité de technologies émergentes / For contemporary organizations, exploratory partnerships constitute opportunities to open their portfolio partnership and to embrace objects increasingly innovative and cross-functional. But, in such new forms of R&D relationships, a major crisis is caused by the fact that the common purpose is unknown at the beginning and need to be designed during the cooperation process.From a single-case study of a cross-industrial technological exploratory partnership, MINATEC IDEAs Laboratory, that research explains how heterogeneous actors reach shared objectives and launch together innovation projects.In order to understand and to model those collective objects, we propose the Matching/Building model. Based on the recent advances of the C-K Design Theory, our model describes interactions patterns between the partners’ design reasoning during their cooperation.Furthermore, that research highlights two methodological tools for enhancing cooperation in innovation : OPERA is a cartographic system to manage innovation projects and to master the evolution of the cooperation, D4 method permits to co-innovate by challenging the identity of emerging technology