Claves del derecho de redes empresariales. AAVV

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СКАЧАТЬ address similar consumer desires by different technologies, and thereby reduce the (potential) drain of own customers that turn to T-Mobile due to the iPhone offer. Or T-Mobile’s competitors could form an alliance among themselves, e.g. O2 could ally with Vodafone (Gimeno’s “common rival link”) and attempt to jointly attack T-Mobile on different features of its offers. This countermove could then address an element in T-Mobile’s product and service portfolio totally unrelated to smartphones and expose a weak spot in its competitive posture, a phenomenon known from multi-market contact theory (Yu & Cannella, 2013).

      Gimeno (2004) suggested that partner selection and the type of alliance formed as a response to a competitor do not follow a naïve logic; that is, neither allying with a rival’s partner nor the formation of countervailing alliances is systematically preferred. Rather, alliance type choice depends on the degree of co-specialization, which itself reflects the degree to which alliance partners emphasize the specific needs of the particular partner, inter alia through specific investments, or by providing proprietary knowledge. In our example, if Apple offered a specific version of the iPhone in the shape of a T-Mobile logo, and T-Mobile installed specific T-Mobile-iPhone stores, this would reflect relationship-specific investments into the alliance that would be lost if the alliance broke up. Gimeno is thus able to show that rivals’ co-specialized alliances may involve exclusivity, precluding alliances with rivals’ partners and thus encouraging countervailing alliances.

      Overall, a firm’s network formation, or its joining an existing network, can lead to manifold competitor responses. From a strategic management perspective, this implies at least three imperatives:

      First, firms need to make sure that they are aware of competitors’ partnering actions as an essential part of competitor analysis (Gnyawali & Madhavan, 2001).

      Second, firms need to implement and improve the capability to assess the consequences of competitor actions in alliancing and quickly generate potential responses. The options that Gimeno (2004) provided are certainly neither exclusive nor exhaustive, but might serve as a first framework to devise possible reaction strategies.

      Third, taking a proactive approach to the opportunities generated by alliance formation can lead to a temporary advantage: Firms could therefore actively seek opportunities in order to improve their own positions via alliances, and consider that first-mover advantages may offer substantial returns, at least in some environments (Suarez & Lanzolla, 2007).

3.2. Competition in Network Composition

      The competition for «good ideas», that is, identifying sources of beneficial cooperation that could otherwise not be realized, is only one dynamic that challenges firms and existing networks. Once established, networks will discover the potential — and, over time, even the imperative — to improve their setup, including their organizational structure and management (to be dealt with in the subsequent section of this chapter), as well as their member base.

      The specific member constellation (network composition) with its idiosyncratic resource and capability endowment determines whether networks can deliver on their intended benefits. Therefore, to improve their resource and capability base, they often proactively search for new members. However, in most industries, strategically relevant resources are owned by a limited number of firms (Gomes-Casseres, 1996) and networks often compete for identical partners in order to secure or increase their share of the industry’s available rent (Uzzi, 1997; Gomes-Casseres, 2003). As a result, the fastest-moving network gets the most appropriate members, thereby improving its competitive position (Gomes-Casseres, 1994; Silverman & Baum, 2002). The urge to acquire new members is especially great if rival networks enlarge rapidly (Gomes-Casseres, 1994). Along with the growth of rival networks the pool of desirable members shrinks, provoking membership competition for appropriate partners (Möllering, 2010; Silverman & Baum, 2002). Due to the existence of dual membership and the usually fluid nature of network contracts, competition exceeds the remaining pool of available partners in the industry and also affects existing memberships (Möllering, 2010). Thus, networks need to deploy sufficient retention efforts, since the loss of a core member potentially reduces the network's viability (Gomes-Casseres, 1994). In the airline industry, for example, Austrian Airlines was a founding member of Swissair’s Qualiflyer Alliance that was formed in 1992. However, in 2000, Austrian changed to the Star Alliance, which contributed to the demise of Qualiflyer and eventually to Swissair’s 2002 collapse.

      In one of the first empirical studies in this area, a research group was able to shed light on business networks’ internal organizational processes (Albers, Schweiger & Gibb, 2013) by examining the instruments and processes a network uses to retain extant members, as well as to acquire new ones. The chosen context involved a large German tire retailing network named “RubberNet”, an alias for a real network to ensure confidentiality.

       TABLE 1: Leading Tire Retailers in Germany (2012)

Rank	Retailer	No. of outlets (2012)
1	GDHS (Goodyear-Dunlop)	962
2	Point S	552
3	Vergölst (Continental)	361
4	Euromaster (Michelin)	327
5	Team	320
6	EFR	310
7	MLX (Meyer Lissendorf)	301
8	First Stop (Bridgestone)	225

      Source: BRV (2012).

      The tire retailing industry in Germany was chosen for the window it offered into network rivalry. Today, 83 percent of German tire retailers are members of a network (BRV, 2012) that is used to increase purchasing power and enhance consumer awareness. Overall, the top eight retail networks each operate over 200 outlets within Germany (see table 1 for an overview).

      RubberNet is a network of independent tire retailers operating as a legally constituted limited liability corporation. The relevant decision and activity levels in RubberNetare the network and retail member levels. The explorative empirical study identified three core acquisition and retention processes, that is, sensing, attracting, and securing, and found that the roles of two network organizational actor levels (the network’s central management unit, or headquarters (HQ)), and the retail member organizations, combine to serve as necessary linkers and enablers in acquiring and retaining members.

      The sensing process refers to monitoring the industry context and the early identification of potential acquisition targets; that is, individual retailers in which changes in ownership and management have just taken place, or are likely to be effective soon. Rival networks members that are not satisfied with their situation in their current retailer system are also potential recruits. For RubberNet, sensing relies on an active membership base and strong connections with local small and medium enterprises. Another important factor is the availability of central management unit “coaches”; that is, network HQ employees that are assigned to a specific region in Germany to liaise with, and tutor regional members. They are the first contact for all members in case of any business-related issue and monitor relevant developments in the local industry environment, approaching competing retailers if they think this is appropriate. The network HQ itself also contributes to sensing by its central management team which systematically collects and analyzes industry news, both formal (for example, in industry news) and informal (for example, rumors on trade fairs). Overall, combining local retailers (member level) and network management (network HQ, network level) seems to be an effective means of increasing the membership base.

      The second process, attracting, was found to be more analytical, and includes specific predefined service components, roles, procedures and even norms. These are driven and administered by the network HQ, with network members being comparatively passive. They can be activated if the need arises since a retailer-to-retailer talk is sometimes more effective than a manager-to-retailer talk, but the actual approach, negotiation, and contract closure is performed centrally via the network HQ and its staff.

      This СКАЧАТЬ