How to balance interfirm relationships? A case from high-speed railway industry
Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing
ISSN: 0885-8624
Article publication date: 25 March 2020
Issue publication date: 15 December 2020
Abstract
Purpose
Balancing interfirm relationships is important for firms’ long-term superior performance. However, prior studies mainly focus on interfirm competition or interfirm cooperation separately, ignoring the balance of interfirm relationships. To bridge this gap in knowledge, this study aims to develop a framework to evaluate the balance of interfirm competition and interfirm cooperation and propose strategies to optimize a firm’s interfirm relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
After an in-depth literature review, a framework was developed for evaluating and optimizing the interfirm relationships. Taking the high-speed railway industry as an example, the proposed framework was implemented.
Findings
The results of the case confirm that the balancing of interfirm relationships can lead to more superior firm performance. Also, rather than mutual suppression, the interfirm competition and interfirm cooperation present a roughly positive relationship.
Originality/value
This study would contribute to the existing knowledge body by developing a framework for balancing interfirm relationships. Also, this study can aid practitioners in evaluating and optimizing their interfirm relationship structures.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Findings: This study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant NSFC-71771052; the Postgraduate Research and Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province under Grant KYCX19_0126; and the Research Project on Humanities and Social Sciences of Hebei Higher Education Institutions (Top Young Scholar Project) under Grant BJ2019079. The first author is supported by the China Scholar Council “High-level university graduate program”
Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Citation
Zhang, N., Deng, X., Hwang, B.-G. and Niu, Y. (2020), "How to balance interfirm relationships? A case from high-speed railway industry", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 35 No. 11, pp. 1785-1799. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-09-2019-0389
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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