Title: The future of strategic collaboration

Authors: Frits D.J. Grotenhuis

Addresses: PO Box 3199, Soest 3760 DD, The Netherlands

Abstract: The transformation from an industrial economy to a knowledge-based, |creative|- or |new| economy has a huge impact on strategic partnerships. As more and more organisations make use of (virtual) networks to innovate, the question rises about the future of mergers, joint ventures, alliances and other kinds of multi-polar networks. Two expert panels were used to explore pitfalls for strategic collaboration in an old and new-economy context. Results indicate that pitfalls will especially differ for the pre-merger phase in a new-economy context when compared to the post-merger phase. Based on the results, it can also be concluded that traditional forms of collaboration such as mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances will remain important ways for external growth. Both arguments for a relative increase of mergers, as well as for joint ventures or alliances were offered by panel participants.

Keywords: partnerships; new economies; strategic collaboration; virtual networks; mergers; acquisitions; strategic alliances; industrial economies; knowledge-based economies; creative economies; innovation; joint ventures; multi-polar networks; external growth; business; globalisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2010.035018

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2010 Vol.5 No.3, pp.225 - 237

Published online: 01 Sep 2010 *

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