O estudo aborda as características de relacionamento entre empresas montadoras e operadores logísticos no Brasil, tendo em vista o caráter estratégico da prestação de serviços de logística integrada na indústria automobilística, setor que vem apresentando uma transformação muito grande em suas práticas e organização. O foco de análise é a logística de suprimento em montadoras de automóveis, não se abordando a distribuição de veículos prontos. O processo de globalização tem exigido a reestruturação das empresas para sua sobrevivência e desenvolvimento, a busca de vantagem competitiva, pela incorporação a seus produtos, da cadeia de valor dos clientes, e, no relacionamento interempresarial, novas formas de administração de suas cadeias de suprimentos. Os serviços de logística se mostram mais abrangentes, na estratégia e processo produtivos, numa nova caracterização da atuação de operadores logísticos. Na sua terceirização, tendência firme que se constatou, teoricamente, poderiam se apresentar alianças estratégicas entre empresas. As características de relacionamento nessa direção são abordadas nesta tese. O estudo foi conduzido com base em fontes secundárias e pela realização de entrevistas junto a montadoras e operadores logísticos. Metodologicamente, adotou-se o estudo de multicasos na identificação de arranjos institucionais da operação da logística por operadores especializados. Foi identificado um ambiente em transição, em que a terceirização é um fato, com operadores logísticos, assumindo, cada vez mais, parcelas importantes das atividades dos contratantes. No entanto, o relacionamento está longe de caracterizar verdadeiras alianças estratégicas, apresentando-se uma interação dinâmica e, muitas vezes contraditória, entre as empresas. A consciência mútua das interdependências, aceitação e entendimento de interesses individuais, a serem conciliados em alianças estratégicas, com o objetivo comum de melhor condição competitiva e compartilhamento justo de riscos, custos e recompensas, podem ser fundamentais na implantação de novas formas de produção na indústria e na adoção de operadores logísticos únicos. / This study analyses the relationship among automotive industries and third party logistics (3PL) providers in Brazil, regarding the strategic aspect of the integrated logistics service in that industry, which is showing a remarkable changing in its organization and production practices. This analysis focuses the inbound logistic in car assembling plants. The globalization process requires firms restructure to enable survival and development, the search for competitive advantages, reflecting in their products their clients value chain and, in the relationship among firms, innovative ways of supply chain management. Logistics services assume a broader scope in the production process and in the company strategy, reflecting their providing by 3PL firms in a new way. In this outsourcing, theoretically, strategic alliances among firms could take place. The relationships characteristics towards this direction are analyzed in this thesis. The study used secondary sources and interviews were conducted with automotive and logistic services providers executives. For identifying institutional arrangements in logistics services providing industry, the basic methodology adopted was multicase studies. This work identifies a transition environment with outsourcing as a fact and logistics providers increasingly assuming relevant portions of the automotive industry activities. Nevertheless, their relationships are far from actual strategic alliances, occurring a dynamic and, many times, contradictory interaction among the firms. Consciousness of mutual interdependence, agreement and understanding of individual interests to be conciliated for the achievement of the common objective of better competitive condition and fair risks, costs and rewards sharing are needed. This could be a sound basis for the new production ways and define solids fundamentals for the new trend of full logistic provider implementations, already seen in the industry.

O estudo buscou identificar a relação entre o perfil de governança de alianças brasileiras da pecuária de corte bovina e a coordenação dos agentes. A análise utilizou o arcabouço da teoria dos custos de transação para identificar as dimensões das transações, especificidade de ativos, freqüência e incerteza, e os conceitos de escopo relativo e embeddedness para a avaliação da densidade das relações dos agentes. Realizou-se uma descrição da pecuária de corte bovina nacional que caracterizou o processo de modernização da atividade a partir da análise das práticas de produção rural, a evolução das liberações de recursos de crédito rural e a expansão da presença internacional da carne bovina brasileira. A pesquisa também levantou a literatura sobre a coordenação dos agentes do sistema agroindustrial, produtores rurais, indústria frigorífica e varejo, tanto em termos internacionais como a partir da experiência nacional. Desenvolveu-se, por fim, uma pesquisa empírica junto a quatro alianças nacionais, cada qual liderada por um agente pertencente a um elo do processo produtivo, em que se obtiveram indícios que a coordenação entre os agentes é favorecida, tanto mediante a constituição de rede de relacionamentos horizontais, sob a liderada dos produtores rurais, como através da constituição de uma rede hierárquica, sob o controle do varejo. / The research aimed at finding the link between the governance structures and the coordination in Brazilian beef alliances. The analysis is based upon the transaction cost economics to identify the transaction dimensions, investment specificity, frequency and uncertainty, and on the concepts of relative scope and embbededness in order to finding the relationships density among agents. A description of the Brazilian beef agroindustrial system was developed in order to understand its modernization process based upon the analysis of its rural production practices, the increasing pattern of rural financing operations, and the Brazilian beef exports growth at the international markets. The research also has summed up the beef agribusiness system literature about players coordination: farmers, pack industry and retailers, at international and national levels. It was performed an empirical research on four Brazilian beef alliances each one with the leadership performed by a specific agent in the production chain: farmers, pack industry and retailing. It was found evidence that agents coordination is strengthened by horizontal network of dense relationships implemented by farmers leadership, and also through retailer vertical control.

Si les alliances stratégiques ont fait l’objet de plusieurs recherches en management stratégique, l’appréciation de ce phénomène en situation de stress demeure très peu explorée. Cette thèse étudiera le concept des alliances stratégiques stressées, qu’elle développe en élargissant la perspective stratégique du stress des organisations. Selon la littérature traitant les relations interentreprises, l'alliance stratégique est considérée comme une forme de coopération instable, présentant un risque et impliquant une relation inéquitable. Elle subit l’action et la présence de plusieurs forces internes et externes, qui menacent sa survie, au risque de déséquilibres ou de dysfonctionnements, contributeurs des difficultés. De ce fait, les partenaires doivent appréhender des mesures d’adaptations, des ajustements et des négociations. La revue de la littérature de l’échec et de l’instabilité des alliances établie en se basant sur le modèle SMOCS (Smida, 1995) nous a permis de suggérer les trois principaux facteurs de stress à savoir : les objectifs, les ressources et l’environnement. Une méthode de recherche qualitative fondée sur des entretiens semi-directifs est adoptée. La visée de la recherche est exploratoire. Ancrée dans le paradigme interprétativiste, elle repose sur un mode de raisonnement abductif. La démarche adoptée s’appuie sur l’analyse de 40 entretiens semi-directifs réalisés auprès d’alliances managers, de directeurs d’alliances et de consultants. Les résultats de notre recherche montrent que les partenaires oscillent entre convergence et divergence d’objectifs, entre volonté de partage et domination du management, entre diffusion et rétention de connaissances et ressources, et pour finir, entre loyauté et opportunisme. L’alliance stratégique exige la recherche constante d’un équilibre délicat et menacé notamment par l’exaspération des tensions. S’inscrivant dans cette logique, l’alliance stratégique est donc, une organisation stressée et figure parmi les événements les plus stressants pour les entreprises, du fait, qu’elle soit capable d’activer simultanément plusieurs facteurs de stress. Nous notons que le stress est positif, si les adaptations, ajustements et négociations sont réussies cependant, qu’il sera négatif dans le cas d’échec de ces derniers. Il s’agit d’un apport aux recherches sur la dynamique des relations d’alliances suite à un processus de négociations. Nous apportons ainsi une description claire de la situation d’adaptation de l’alliance s’agissant d’une situation de stress. Ce travail présente comme intérêt un apport conceptuel, celui d’une alliance stressée ainsi que de ses différents facteurs de stress. L’intérêt managérial réside dans le diagnostic de la situation de stress des alliances. / While strategic alliances have been the subject of several studies in strategic management, this phenomenon under stress remains little explored. This thesis will study the concept of stressed strategic alliances, which it develops by enlarging the strategic perspective of stress in organizations. It emerges from the review of the literature that the strategic alliance is an unstable inter-company form, a risky and inequitable strategy. It undergoes the action and the presence of several internal and external forces that menace its survival, under risk of imbalances or dysfunctions that contribute to difficulties. Therefore, the partners must understand adaptive measures, adjustments and negotiations. The review of the literature of the failure and instability of alliances established based on the model SMOCS (Smida, 1995) allowed us to suggest the three principle factors of stress, i.e., objectives, resources and environment. A qualitative research method based on semi-directed interviews was adopted. The research goal is exploratory. Anchored in an interpretive paradigm, the target follows abductive reasoning. The adopted approach is based on analysis of 40 semi-directed interviews held with alliance managers, directors and consultants. The results of our research show that partners vacillate between convergence and divergence of objectives, between the will to share and to dominate management, between diffusion and retention of knowledge and resources, and finally, between loyalty and opportunism. The strategic alliance demands constant search of a delicate equilibrium threatened notably by aggravation of tensions. In this logic, the strategic alliance is thus a stressed organization and figures among the most stressful events for companies; it is capable of simultaneously activating several stress factors. We find that stress is positive if the adaptations, adjustments and negotiations are successful, but that it is negative in the case of their failure. This study contributes to the research on the dynamics of alliance relationships following a process of negotiations. We thus contribute a clear description of the situation of adaptation of the alliance under a situation of stress. This work presents a conceptual contribution, that of the stressed alliance as well as its different factors of stress. Managerial interest resides in the diagnostic of the situation of stress in alliances.

Individual businesses from a variety of sectors network and work together to create a successful tourist experience. The interdependencies of organisations producing this experience make cooperation a necessity in destination marketing. Despite the centrality of cooperation and networking in tourism marketing relatively little empirical research has been conducted in this area. This thesis uses the case of the development of the official NZ website www.purenz.com (purenz) to examine the role, form and process of inter-organisational cooperation in destination marketing. Drawing on in-depth interviews with thirty- five industry members involved in establishing and managing www.purenz.com between 1999 and 2006 this thesis makes a number of contributions to both the marketing and tourism literature. The thesis confirms that there are considerable difficulties in broadening the marketing role of the national tourism organisation (NTO) beyond destination promotion. The study also finds that destination marketing and destination management are still perceived as separate processes in the NZ tourism industry. In addition, the results of this study provide support for the view that the social networks in which firms are embedded have a considerable influence on inter-organisational alliance formation. This thesis contributes to the development of theoretical approaches to the study of cooperation in destination marketing by identifying five levels of cooperation in destination marketing: passive acceptance, support, alignment, contribution and pooling. The levels are based on the different types of input that may be required from stakeholders by the NTO. The level of cooperation desired in a particular context is a strategic choice to be made by the destination marketing management. This choice is affected by the existing characteristics of the tourism network; the NTO leaders’ perception of the need for and value of cooperation in destination marketing and also by the extent of shared understanding of the scope of destination marketing management among tourism stakeholders. The research points to the need to develop further the network characteristics affecting cooperation in destination marketing. Further work is also needed to develop a more complete profile of the five levels of cooperation identified by this study and the investment required to achieve each level of cooperation.

Over the last two decades there has been a tremendous increase in collaboration among competing firms. A significant number of these collaborations are international. This thesis explores the incentives and welfare consequences of collaboration in the context of international trade. We consider two types of cross-border collaborations. The first is collaboration by sharing a part of firms' value creating activities, such as technology development, product design and distribution. This saves on production costs but reduces product distinctiveness. Firms collaborate if and only if the reduction in product distinctiveness is lower than a threshold level. We find that the threshold increases with an increase in trade costs. That is, an increase in trade costs makes collaboration more likely. Higher trade cost lowers competition, which in turn enables the firms to save on fixed costs while forgoing some product distinctiveness. Furthermore, we demonstrate that contrary to standard intuition, higher trade cost could enhance consumers' welfare by inducing competitors to collaborate. We extend our model to endogenise location choice by the firms where collaboration requires co-location (due to the benefit of local spillovers or joint investment in key infrastructures). Unlike the original model, we find that an increase in trade costs can discourage collaboration. In both circumstances, we find that an increase in trade cost can improve consumer surplus. The second type of collaboration considered in this thesis is licensing. We extend the standard licensing literature to an environment where firms compete in the domestic as well as foreign market. We examine how trade cost affects the licensing decision as well as the optimal payment mechanism. We find that an increase in trade costs reduces the possibility of licensing. Concerning the payment mechanism, we find that (i) either royalty or (ii) a two-part tariff (involving a fixed fee as well as royalty payments) is optimal. An increase in trade costs reduces the likelihood of royalty only being the optimal payment mechanism.

<p>Background: A majority of strategic alliances do not create value for the participants. One of the main reasons for the high failure rate is an inadequate process for partner selection. If the correct partner is not selected, it can have serious effects on the management of the partnership. This is a serious problem since failed alliances usually are very expensive for the involved companies. </p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate which theoretical factors are important when selecting a partner for a strategic alliance. Further we aim to investigate how these factors can effect partner selection for small and middle size technology intensive companies. </p><p>Realisation: The empirical part is based on interviews with persons holding key positions at four case companies. All the case companies are situated in Mjärdevi Science Park. </p><p>Result: Our research has shown that the strategic fit is the crucial factor. Other important factors are brand, network position, compatibility and attention when selecting a partner for a strategic alliance.</p>

<p>Syfte: Noggrann undersökning vad som ligger bakom detta samarbete, motiven, vilket inte framgås av de öppna källorna. Hur man har tänkt långsiktigt, kommer denna trend att hålla i sig och i så fall hur kommer det utvecklas med bl.a. utlands expansion. Jag har en egen hypotes att det eventuellt är en konspiration bakom det hela. Och även undersöka varför en del banker avstår från sådana verksamheter/allianser.</p><p>Metod: Data har samlats in genom de öppna källor, bankerna och försäkringsbolagens hemsidor, pressmedelanden från en rad olika tidningar för att få försöka få en bild hur den aktuella bilden ser ut. Den empiriska delen är gjord av intervjuer av korrespondenter på ledande personer från Handelsbanken, Swedbank, Folksam och Danske Bank. Därefter har jag kopplat vad som har sagts i empirin med relevanta teorier.</p><p>Resultat & slutsats: Motiven för samarbete och verksamhet är ganska enkla. Det är rena strategiska beslut om konkurrens och marknadsandelar. Det är två olika modeller som man går efter för att följa trenden, ena är egen verksamhet som Handelsbanken och den andra är samarbete som Swedbank och Folksam. Banker som inte har gått in i trenden som Danske Bank inte tycker att försäkringsverksamhet är någon naturlig del av den ordinarie bankverksamheten.</p><p>Förslag till fortsattforskning: Banker med inte någon verksamhet, varför exakt man inte har det, några särkskilda motiv. Och jämföra med hur det ser ut i andra länder och framför allt varför det ser ut så. Vad kommer att hända om en utomlands expansion sker? Hur kommer det att utvecklas?</p><p>Uppsatsens bidrag: En utomlands expansion är viktig i samband med försäkringsverksamheten. Framförallt hur man kan lyckas med bägge verksamheter. Generellt så tror jag att både banker och försäkringsbolag kommer att ha nytta av studien.</p> / <p>Aim: An accurate investigation about what is behind this cooperation, the motives which is not clear from the open sources. How have one thought in the long term, will this trend hold on and in that case how will it develop with, for example an expansion to oversees. I have a hypothesis that there is a possible conspiracy behind this. And also investigate why some banks choose to not be apart of these activity/alliances.</p><p>Method: The data has be collected from the open sources, the banks and insurance com-panies homepages, press, and a number of various news papers to get an current picture. The empirical part has been made by interviews from the correspondents from leading people in Handelsbanken, Swedbank, Folksam and Danske Bank. And thereafter have I connected this data to relevant theories.</p><p>Result & Conclusions: The motives behind this activity and cooperation are pretty sim-ple. It is pure strategic decisions whom have been made about competition and market shares. There are two different models that the banks follow to because of the trend. One is an own activity like Handelsbanken, and the other is a cooperation like Swedbank and Folksam. Danske Bank who has not been apart of the activity as yet, don’t think that the insurance activity is an obvious part of the ordinary bank activity.</p><p>Suggestions for future research: Banks who does not have any insurance activity, why exactly don’t they have it, is there any specific reason and then compare to how it is in other countries, why it is in a certain way, and if has shown a positive or negative effect. What will happen if an expansion takes place abroad and how will it develop?</p><p>Contribution of the thesis: An expansion abroad is important in relation to the insurance activity, and how to succeed with the both activity. I think both a bank and insurance company will have a benefit of this study. Here the author will discuss how the thesis has contributed to new knowledge for different interested parties. By contribution it is meant the expected usability of the conducted thesis.</p>

<p>This thesis provides a coherent theoretical account of the role of trust in strategic alliances from varied disciplinary perspectives and by establishing some common ground among these perspectives. Approaching the integration of the literature about trust and strategic alliances from the resource based view, the transaction cost view, the dialectical perspective, and the social network perspective is aimed at creating a new systematic explanatory scheme. The unique combination of these four perspectives provides overlapping explanations for strategic alliance behaviour and serves as a methodical device for analysing the dynamics of trust relationships. This theoretical-methodical foundation will serve as tool for sorting out and highlighting different research streams regarding the two key topics. An integrative framework of the notion of trust in strategic alliances is built around the key issue “culture of trust”. The culture of trust is addressed, because one of the main findings will be that collaborative relationships require some minimum social base with trust as its constitutive element. Arguments will be provided that inter-organizational ventures characterized by high interdependence, require the trust mechanism to make leadership effective. The tension between trust and control in strategic alliances is discussed and attention is drawn to the possibilities and key abilities of leaders in establishing trust as a constitutive element in strategic alliances.</p>

This thesis examines perceptions of cooperation among small to medium sized enterprises (SME) in western Oregon's forest products industry. Recent changes in the industry, such as corporate consolidation, global marketing, and government regulations have created an environment in which many SMEs find it difficult to stay competitive. Cooperation among SMEs is one method for alleviating the situation; however, few SME owners are engaging in cooperative projects or behaviors. Common assumptions and stereotypes about the individualistic nature of the forest products industry lead some to believe that cooperation is an unlikely avenue for SME owners. Through 16 in-depth interviews with SME owners, this view is found to be overly simplistic. It does not account for the variety of factors at play and the depth of the issues involved in SME owners' attitudes toward cooperation. In studying attitudes toward cooperation, this study first attempts to understand the cultural values of the decision makers. It is apparent that values play an integral role in the decision making and strategy of SME owners. This research highlights the complexity of the issues facing small businesses and their owners and reveals that four main factors contribute to SME owners' perceptions about cooperation and influence strategic business decisions: common values, stereotypes, risk perception, and a lack of knowledge about cooperation. Values are found to be especially relevant in understanding and influencing attitudes toward cooperation as values affect risk perception and risk perception in turn directly impacts business strategy. Understanding the values of SME owners helps to describe their attitudes toward cooperation and dispels the notion that they are too independent to ever work together. Eight recommendations stem from the findings of this study which may lead to cooperative action and more successful SMEs: 1) Find a trustworthy agent to act as a sponsor; 2) Build credible systems; 3) Match members with similar values; 4) Expound the potential benefits of cooperation to reduce risk perception; 5) Find a spark plug, not a spokesperson; 6) Provide education; 7) Define and implement both learning networks and action groups; 8) Target new and future categories of SME owners such as women and the children or grandchildren of current owners. / Graduation date: 2004

Background: Traditionally defined boundaries and borders between organizations are at present being re-evaluated because of new and tougher demands. Today we can see a trend where these boundaries are being lowered or even eliminated when organizations choose to co-operate instead of compete. Purpose: In order to create an understanding for the partner selection process in the newly founded joint ventures between the companies which are building the Swedish 3G Network, the determining factors are being studied. Delimitation: The studies companies are co-operating as network operators but are at the same time competing as mobile operators. This relationship is in the literature described as co-opetition, which will not be investigated in this paper. Realization: Taking our starting point in Geringer’s task- and partner-related approach, a simple model has been created for the task. Empirical data have been collected through interviews, and have been analyzed with this model. Results: Essentially the same factors have been found determining for the companies which have committed themselves for co-operation. These factors do however tend to differ partly between the two joint ventures that have been founded. In the Europolitan Vodafone” Hi3G joint venture, compatibility between top management and culture&amp;structure seem to be the motivating factors. From a Telia - Tele2-perspective, the mutual factors seem to be financing and compatibility between top management. An important criterion has in both joint venture constellations to the access to existing real capital and infrastructure as well as having existing customers.