Collaboration between Firms in Information Technology
Group G
Abstract
Recent decades have witnessed a remarkable increase in collaboration
between firms in the research, design, manufacture, and marketing of
products and services, especially in information technology industries.
Group G endeavors to examine the strategic issues surrounding collaboration
and to describe
the four major modes through which firms work together: standards organizations,
consortia, strategic alliances, and technology webs. This report contains
a discussion of the motivations for and potential dangers involved in the formation of
alliances, the factors which determine their success or failure, their
effect on the deployment of new technologies, and the issues which
will influence the future of collaboration. General concepts are
described in the context of several specific case studies, including
that of the Network Computer.