TO JOIN INDUSTRIAL ALLIANCES - STRATEGIC DECISION OR NOT?

摘要

The trend has turned from making products internalrnto buying from external suppliers. But to really berncompetitive, it is of great value that the right companyrndevelops and manufactures the products. A newrnconcept is introduced - Rightsourcing. The sourcingrndecision, whether it is in- or outsourcing, may openrndoors to different kind of co-operation between actors.rnForms of co-operation could be e.g. industrialrnalliances, networks etc., which could be developedrninto a powerful tool that can increase a company’srncompetitiveness. During the last decades outsourcingrnof product development to external partners in somernform of co-operation i.e. Collaborative Product Development,rnhas increased. This paper is based upon arnliterature overview and a case study conducted atrnVolvo CE Components AB in Sweden. The objectivernis to identify critical parameters involving the decisionrnmaking to join an industrial alliance and if thatrndecision is strategic? To achieve this, focus has beenrnon the critical parameters that affect the decision tornjoin an industrial alliance, and the decision itself.rnThe results shows that the most important reasons forrnjoining an industrial alliance, which also is critical,rnare lack of resources; this is also the case withrnVolvo. Volvo´s decision to join the industrial alliancernwith ZF Steyr was strategic.