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The interest for collaboration among small and mediumsized enterprises and innovation has been highlighted, in recent times, due to the acceleration of technological changes and to increasing international competitiveness. Many small firms, with rigid structures and weak entrepreneurial dynamics, experienced difficulties in becoming innovators. Some of these firms can adopt collaborative agreements because these relationships enable them to get the necessary innovative activities, know-how, and exploit opportunities, which they cannot achieve alone. This study examines the motives for the formation of collaborative agreements in industrial Portuguese SMEs and presents some empirical evidence concerning collaboration as an important vehicle for the innovativeness of these small firms. The findings were based on a sample of 92 firms/collaborative agreements.

Prior research on joint venture (JV) formation often examines a single focal firm and assumes it has a single motive for collaboration. This study seeks to investigate how formation motives of partner firms are symmetrically coupled. It considers motives in the context of different European Economic Interest Groupings (EEIGs) characteristics and partner firm characteristics.

Self‐administered surveys were employed and a total sample of 104 partners cooperating in 47 different JVs (EEIGs) was used for data analysis.

The paper observes the coupling of different formation motives and finds that different rationales to establish international JVs are held simultaneously by partners. Furthermore, it finds that the number of partners increase when partners hold motives primarily to develop knowledge.

Current theorising might focus too narrowly on particular motives or at best on combinations of motives within a specific theoretical approach. Such a single approach might be rather simplistic due to the multiple rationales to enact EEIGs by partners. Future studies that accommodate multiple perspectives simultaneously in a single paper would significantly advance the field and hold more explanatory power.

The paper finds that in general partner motives are symmetric, but some motives are more natural candidates for partners to couple together. Furthermore, smaller firms can also benefit by forming more complex collaborations and hold multiple motives simultaneously.

The paper reinvigorates theoretical development by showing the amalgamation of different motives and theories for JV establishment. It also provides new guidelines to practitioners and scholars alike by examining various combinations of collaborative motives and how they are coupled across partners in alliance dyads.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate market‐facing fashion industry strategic alliances in the fashion industry by studying a specific case in context of the existing literature. It has three key objectives: to explore the motives causing strategic alliance formation in the fashion industry; to understand the processes involved in the creation and management of such an alliance, and to identify factors defining the success of the alliance.

Case study methodology was employed studying an instance of market‐facing strategic alliance in the fashion sector.

It was found that while issues generic within the literature may be discerned in instances of strategic alliance in the fashion industry, industry‐specific factors, especially competence in marketing, branding and retailing, impact on the motives for alliance, partner selection and alliance implementation and alliance.

The usual limitations of any case study apply.

The paper provides an account of the motives for processes affecting and outcomes of strategic alliance in the fashion industry and promoting student, academic and practitioner understanding of the topic. The paper also provides a model for the management of such an alliance.

The paper offers insights into a contemporary phenomenon of interest to both practitioners and academics and provides detail on the motives and processes contingent to the successful management of strategic alliances within the fashion sector.

The aim of this article is to describe and analyze a case of interorganizational and intersectoral collaboration on workplace health promotion involving nine municipalities in a Swedish region.

A holistic case study design was chosen. The work of a project group responsible for developing plans for collaboration in the target area of health promoting leadership was studied. Observations at project meetings, interviews with project members, and written project documents were analyzed by qualitative methods.

Collaboration on health promoting leadership was seen as a strategy to reduce the sickness rate among the employees in the municipalities. The best way to develop such leadership was considered to be through supporting good leadership in general and improving the general working conditions of managers in the municipalities. Moreover, it was regarded as a critical condition to have structural arrangements and resources to continue this collaboration.

An implication of the study is that collaboration on workplace health promotion should be organized initially on a small scale, giving time and opportunities for the participants to develop mutual trust with one another. It is also important to involve participants with different knowledge and experiences in the field. Thus, it may be possible to develop strategies for health‐promoting leadership contributing to the overall aim of a decreased sickness rate.

There is limited research on barriers and facilitating factors for interorganizational and intersectoral collaboration on workplace health promotion. This study contributes an analysis of important conditions for this kind of collaboration.

The importance of the Baltic states has increased due to increase of capital inflow from the West. A large part of the foreign involvement takes the form of alliance with local partners in the region. But how these alliances operate and fulfill the objectives of the partners in the Baltic states remain almost unexplored. By the help of depth interviews, four alliances, two in Estonia and the other two in Lithuania, have therefore been studied in this research work. The theoretical framework is based on the concepts of motives, resources, learning, network, performance and general environment. Cost reduction, market seeking, and development and maintenance of services have been the main motives of foreign firms in entering into the alliances. No clear cut motive is observed from the local partners’ side. Learning has been found important for both the partners and concerns cultural differences, local knowhow and adaptation to the Western way in doing business. A broader view of performance is presented by including network development in the article. Profitability, market share, and sales have been seen as short term while network development and relationships as longterm performance criteria in the alliances. The role of general environment on alliances and its impact on network development have also been observed. This study further suggests that alliances offering service dominated products concentrate on the local markets, while alliances offering products with less service elements have export as the target.

Examines firm strategic positioning and industry dynamics in the wireless telecommunications industry, and the relationship between the two. The study tracks how a firm adjusts resources and capabilities over time to cope with the shifts affecting its industry. Offers insights on what factors drive collaboration of telecommunications firms across industrial borders. The study is based on data on the collaborative relationships of Vodafone Group Plc over a three‐year period. An examination of the motivation, resource contribution and partner industry of Vodafone’s collaborative relationships is provided, to illustrate the complexity of firm strategic responses to the processes shaping the industry. Investigates the key motives and resource needs that have driven Vodafone in its collaborative agreements, and how the company has repositioned itself for the changing environmental demands. Identifies and analyzes the relative importance of a set of collaborative motives in relation to partner industry and resources contributed to the relationships. Finally, the future direction of development of the wireless telecommunications industry is forecast.

This chapter illustrates the theoretical foundation of the study. Several issues such as motives, resources, learning, networking, and institutional and environmental impacts are elaborately discussed to point out why strategic alliances are formed and how the firms attempt to fulfill different goals by collaborating with partners. Furthermore, it is taken up how the issues are intertwined and jointly contribute to strengthen the alliance activity. From a longitudinal perspective, a theoretical framework has been drawn not only to show the links but also to highlight the dynamism in the relationship over time. This theoretical framework is used to collect, organize, and analyze the data to finally draw conclusions of the study.

This paper aims to offer a New Zealand perspective on how business and community organisations engage to develop mutually beneficial partnerships to tackle pressing social issues. Specifically, the paper seeks to examine the collaboration motivations for business and community partners involved in seven business‐community partnerships in New Zealand.

The paper utilises data from in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with key business and community managers involved in seven partnerships in New Zealand. The transcripts of the interviews were analysed using elements of content and narrative analysis. Findings to be presented in this paper include: explaining what “partnership” is; understanding a business case; and community organisations' motivations for engaging in partnerships with business.

This research finds that, while partnerships involving business and community organisations may ideally be associated with shared societal concerns, in this study there was a very strong focus on individual community organisation goals and a dominance of business priorities. This was not balanced by an interest in the broader meta‐goals of the partnership.

This paper draws attention to diverse and often competing motivations that characterise business‐community partnerships. The research demonstrates that, while partnerships are often discussed in the context of societal benefits, individual organisations frequently form partnerships primarily for their own instrumental self‐interests. It is hoped that this paper will stimulate understanding of the practical challenges to developing business‐community partnerships, given differences among the partners in goal orientations and expectations.

This study aims to examine the extent of collaboration and networking between local festival stakeholders by focusing on the differences in how they evaluate themselves and other stakeholders.

A questionnaire directed toward different stakeholder groups involving 1,092 respondents was administered at six selected festivals in Ghana, West Africa.

In terms of self-evaluated collaboration and networking, the festival organizers considered themselves to have the highest risk, followed by the sponsors and vendors. However, when the stakeholders assessed each other, most agreed that they experienced higher risk when dealing with vendors. To reduce the risks of dealing with vendors, it is recommended that vendors be registered, accredited and allocated selling spaces before festivals begin.

It is helpful to understand the nature of decision power or different views of collaboration and networking among stakeholders. Further, this study offers insights to understand stakeholders’ motivations to participate in local festivals.

The combination of collaboration and networking between local festival stakeholders into a conceptual model allows the current findings to offer meaningful theoretical and practical implications.

The challenge of innovation and digitalization leads financial institutions and FinTechs to cooperate with each other. Therefore, it becomes more and more important to understand the why of the partnering, as success depends on it. The purpose of this paper is to derive most important common and specific strategic cooperation rationales between financial institutions and FinTechs, which serves as a value adding guideline for both parties.

This study first derives from a literature review the collaborative motives between FinTechs and financial institutions. Based on these findings, eight in-depth and semi-structured interviews with experts were conducted, providing insights as well as grading the motives

Starting from the FinTech perspective, the most relevant partnership motives were found to be financial return, reputation and credibility. The access primarily drives these motives to additional customer acquisition channels and a reputational quality signaling of the FinTech products or services within the market. On the other hand, the most critical incumbent motives were shown to be customer satisfaction and business model innovation. From a corporate perspective, these motives mainly incorporate the opportunity to challenge, pivot and expand the existing business model while increasing customer satisfaction via additional innovative products or services. Starting from the FinTech perspective, the most relevant partnership motives were found to be financial return, reputation and credibility. The access primarily drives these motives to additional customer acquisition channels and a reputational quality signaling of the FinTech products or services within the market. On the other hand, the most critical incumbent motives were shown to be customer satisfaction and business model innovation. From a corporate perspective, these motives mainly incorporate the opportunity to challenge, pivot and expand the existing business model while increasing customer satisfaction via additional innovative products or services.

From a thematical limitation perspective, the interviewee sample size is comparatively moderate-low and the candidates are primarily active on European markets. Therefore, the analyzed motives are limited to European strategic preferences and do not reflect all intercontinental collaboration positions. Further, the strategic collaboration rationale evaluation framework is limited to the financial industry. Thus, this framework cannot be directly applied to other sectors or even further startup segments within the economy.

From a practical perspective, this study provides a top-level overview and guideline of the least and most relevant collaboration motives from a FinTech and financial incumbent point of view. It supports both cooperative parties to improve potential strategic partnership negotiation outcomes.

In contrast to the previous, mainly bank-focused partnership research approaches, this study provides broader collaborative insight within the financial industry by gathering interview data from FinTech, insurance, bank and asset management experts. Furthermore, the derived framework has a practical usage in the collaboration process.