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The acknowledgement that a network of cooperating companies, e.g. a supply chain, could be more successful in achieving competitive advantage than individual businesses, constitutes one of the most significant paradigm shifts in modern business management as it leaves behind the notion of adversarial companies engaged in fierce competition with one another in order to gain a competitive advantage. The "Survival of the Fittest" in what has been called "The Era of Network Competition" depends on how well companies are able to structure, coordinate, and manage relationships with their business partners. In their search for the best possible place under the sun, companies have redefined their understanding of cooperation and have not only improved the efficiency of cooperation with partners (e.g. suppliers, customers, and complementors) but also discovered the existence of synergies with competitors. The apparently paradoxical situation of cooperating with competitors (or it might be thought of as competing with cooperating partners) shows that collaboration is a widespread approach at all levels of strategic management. In light of these thoughts, the question arises why there are still companies that neither cooperate with business partners nor with competitors; although it seems obvious that this could be advantageous. This work attempts to offer an answer to this question.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Inter-organizational cooperation and supply chain management
Cooperation in supply chains and SCM software use in the European automotive industry
Case study of Audi AG
SCOptimizer: a prototype for quantifying benefits of cooperative planning in supply chains
Über den Autor / die Autorin
Dr. Luis Martín Díaz promovierte bei Prof. Dr. Peter Buxmann am Lehrstuhl für Wirtschaftsinformatik der Technischen Universität Darmstadt. Er ist als Projektleiter bei Prodyna GmbH in Frankfurt am Main tätig.
Zusammenfassung
Modern literature has heralded the "Era of Network Competition" in which cooperating networks and not individual firms seek to attain competitive advantages. Supply chains in the automotive industry provide a good example of such cooperative environments which are characterized by a division of labor and where almost no final product is produced and sold by just one company alone.
Luis Martín Díaz shows why some companies are still reluctant to cooperate with partners in the supply chain even though it may be advantageous to them. Based on both an extensive survey within the European automotive industry and a comprehensive case study of the Audi AG corporation, he proposes solutions to this paradox and describes a prototype for the assessment of the added-value of cooperation. His evaluation of the benefits of cooperative planning is a significant contribution to the process of designing collaborative planning activities in supply chains.
