In an increasingly competitive, global and interconnected world, firms across industries are entering into cooperative partnerships as a means of securing their competitive positioning. This is termed the ‘age of cooperation’, ‘cooperative strategies’, ‘coopetition’, or a ‘networked economy’. Cooperative partnerships take various forms, ranging from outsourcing and subcontracting, to franchising and licensing, through joint ventures and alliances, all the way to acquisitions, buyouts and mergers. Though different in terms of their ownership and governance structures, operational modes and goals, these so-called ‘hybrids’ all essentially concern an inter-firm encounter, an inter-firm relationship set in time, or a partnership.

The aims of this module is to explore how best to develop, nurture and sustain inter-firm relationships. This is achieved as follows:

to understand the reasons underlying the shift to a cooperative networked economy, and its consequences for the modern globally operating organization.
	to introduce the student to the range of alternative modes of inter-firm cooperation, and to further explore their unique characteristics and features, whilst drawing the parallels between them. An essential question is – to what extent does inter-firm cooperation, regardless of its form, bear fundamental similarity? And where dissimilar, what are the factors predicting this dissimilarity?
	to understand the economic, strategic and organizational drivers of inter-firm cooperation.
	to explore and identify what are the organizational and human levers to pull on to secure the successful management of inter-firm partnerships.
	to appreciate and openly explore how to develop, nurture and sustain cooperative and high-performing relationships, and what is each individual’s role in this endeavour.
Content could include:

Introduction and overview of inter-firm relationships
	The ‘why’ of cooperation - theoretical and managerial drivers of inter-firm relationships
	Mergers, acquisitions and private equity buyouts as examples of inter-firm relationships.
	Joint ventures and alliances as examples of inter-firm relationships
	The ‘how’ of cooperation - theoretical and managerial dynamics of cooperation