Economic Organization, Capabilities and Coordination

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CLUSTERS OF COLLABORATION

The firm, joint ventures, alliances and clubs

Neil M. Kay

INTRODUCTION

This paper looks at co-operative activity involving firms at three different levels; co-operative activity at the business level (such as joint venture), cooperative activity at firm level (alliances or partnerships between firms) and co-operative activity involving groups of firms (networks or clubs). Following Richardson, our interest is in trying to understand aspects of ‘the complex and inter-locking clusters, groups and alliances which represent cooperation fully and formally developed’ (Richardson 1972: 887). It is argued here that the key to developing such understanding lies in recognising the interaction and interplay between different ...