Sören Kock

Cooperation and competition in relationships between competitors in business networks

Traditionally the relationships between competitors in the industrial market have been based on competition. The network approach and literature about strategic alliances have provided new insights into cooperation between firms based on the value chain. The empirical findings from two in‐depth studies, the rack and pinion industry and the lining industry, show that a firm can be involved in four different types of horizontal relationships at the same time. Apart from relationships consisting of competition or cooperation, a firm can live in symbiosis by coexisting with other relationships, or being involved in a relationship simultaneously containing elements of both cooperation and competition. Consequently, a successful firm needs to focus on relationship management in order to achieve a portfolio consisting of the four types of relationships to other horizontal firms.

Relationship Marketing: the Importance of Customer-Perceived Service Quality in Retail Banking

During the last couple of years relationship marketing has been introduced within services marketing since more efficient, profitable and long-term marketing can be achieved by focusing on present customers instead of concentrating on attracting new ones. Retail banks have in this respect had a unique position as they have a well-developed system of local offices that enable them to be close to and to establish relationships to their customers. A prerequisite for a bank that wants to establish long-term customer relationships is satisfied customers who want to remain customers. In other words, the service quality as perceived by the customers must at least meet their expectations. Otherwise there is a possibility that a dissatisfied customer starts searching for another bank offering similar services, resulting in a break in the relationship with the bank, with which he was dissatisfied.

Buyer Dominated Relationships in a Supply Chain-A Case Study of Four Small-Sized Suppliers

Maria Holmund Is a researcher at the swedish school of economics and buisness administration, Helsigfors, Finland, and Soren Kock is an associate professor at the swedish school of Economics and Business administration, Vasa, Finland, Partnership, Co-operation, and stretegic alliance are among treds that have emerged during the 1990s as outcomes of changes in the economic environment. Supply chain managment, thedynamics and interaction in the relationship between buyers and supplier have received increased attention. The relationship between buyer and suppliers, however, have often been categorised as balanced as the studied compaqnies have been more or less equal in size. In this study we have chosen to analyse supply relationship between a dominating buyer and four small supplier. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the buyer-supplier relationship in order to evaluate their stregth. The focus ha mainly been on the technical planning, knowledge, social and legal economica bonds that have emered over time.in the studies relationship these bonds, when present, have been found in a range from rather weak to strong. Moreover we belive resources needed by the buyer are pre-requisite for maintaining long-term relationslhip. the studied relationship can be regarged as stable and long-lasting as the yongest originated in 1983 and the oldest in 1971. the relationship were established more or less in the same years that small suppliers were founded.

Buyer Perceived Service Quality in Industrial Networks

Abstract The purpose of this article is to deepen our understanding of the concept of buyer perceived service quality when establishing relationships in the industrial market. The focus is on a supplier building positions in separate business networks. The service offered is a patented laser application method, which prolongs the lifetime and durability of metal components. For the supplier it is difficult to assess the right level of service quality and to know what buyers appreciate. By caring out in-depth interviews with the supplier and five buyers, we have found and described three dimensions of buyer perceived service quality: the technical, the functional, and the economic service quality dimension.

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises' Internationalization and the Influence of Importing on Exporting

Relative to the volume of research into internationalization, inward operations have received much less attention than outward operations. This study addresses this imbalance by focusing on the degree to which firms import, how imports started relative to exports, and what import-related factors affect exporting. Findings from a survey of Finnish SMEs suggest that responding firms rate management interest, limited domestic market, and inquiries from buyers as the most significant incentives to start exporting. Import-experienced exporters assign higher ratings on nearly all export incentives, while pure-exporters consider themselves more dependent on governmental support. Importing per se has a comparatively modest, yet statistically significant, influence on exporting.

Co‐opetition: a source of international opportunities in Finnish SMEs

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study international opportunities gained through co‐opetitive relations in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as to examine the influence of different levels of co‐opetition on international opportunities.Design/methodology/approach – In order to achieve the purpose, multiple in‐depth case studies are conducted in four SMEs.Findings – The results reveal a paradigm shift in competition in an international context. Co‐opetition has provided international opportunities for the case companies, though to varying degrees and character. Furthermore, international opportunities can be found in strong and weak cooperation‐dominated relations as well as in equal relations between competitors. However, the different levels of co‐opetition influence the characteristics of the international opportunities in terms of continuity and scope.Research limitations/implications – The results highlight the importance of taking co‐opetitive relations in general as well a...

Tension in Co-Opetition

This paper presents the results of a study dealing with tension in co-opetition. Co-opetition refers to a situation where competitors simultaneously co-operate and compete with each other. Individuals within the two interacting firms have to simultaneously play different and conflicting roles or act in accordance with different logics of interaction (c.f. Bengtsson & Kock 1999). Tension is most assumable inherent in such a relationship, and the purpose for this paper is to provide a conceptual framework for analysing this tension.

Conceptualizing Coopetition Strategy as Practice: A Multilevel Interpretative Framework

Abstract: This study uses a strategy-as-practice approach to define coopetition strategy. Coopetition strategy forms, arguably, through the intersection of the organization’s internal and external value networks, giving rise to simultaneous cooperative and competitive activities of a more or less intended nature. Four scenarios encompassing propositions are put forth to explain how coopetition strategy as a deliberate and emergent activity is manifested in the organization. By approaching coopetition from the strategy-as-practice perspective, current conceptualizations of its deliberate and emergent nature are unified under a common framework. The practice approach advances existing understandings of coopetition by shedding light on strategic actors and their actions at multiple levels, the social embedding of the strategic activities, and the dynamic nature of the strategy.

The importance of competition and cooperation for the exploration of innovation opportunities

The importance of competition and cooperation for the exploration of innovation opportunities

Strategising in Coopetitive Networks

To understand organisational strategies scholars increasingly highlight the importance of approaching strategy as something which organisational members do rather than as something which the organisation itself holds (Jarzabkowski and Whittington 2008). Such reasoning acts as a basis in the strategy-as-practice stream for approaching strategy as a ‘pattern in a stream of goal-directed activity’ (Jarzabkowski 2005: 40) which continuously forms and reforms through social interactions between individual actors, at multiple organisational levels and in the external environment (Golsorkhi et al. 2010; Regner 2008; Whittington 2006). In light of this reasoning, the practice approach has outlined the complexity of strategy, as well as deviated from the traditional view of strategy as a top-down stream of managerial decisions. Instead, the simultaneous existence of multiple and potentially contrasting streams of goal-orientated activities, favoured and maintained differently by actors across the organisation, is put forth to underlie strategy as a concept (Jarzabkowski 2005).