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Corning's CEO shares lessons the company has learned while managing over 40 joint ventures—with only a handful of failures—in the last 60 years.

Business process re‐engineering (BPR) is certainly one of the latest buzzwords and is the subject of great interest and also great controversy. Organizations need to shake themselves out of complacency to close competitive gaps and achieve superior performance standards ‐ the reason why many have embarked on huge BPR projects. In view of the high risks associated with radical change, there are, however, many problems associated with BPR. For some BPR is going off the rails before it is properly understood, and many BPR exercises are not delivering the goods. Sometimes, organizations are expecting “quick fixes”, thus displaying their lack of understanding of a complex system. It is unreasonable to expect quick results when so much change is involved, especially when these business processes involve not only machines, but also people. Many believe, such as Mumford, that the management of change is the largest task in re‐engineering. Many people perceive re‐engineering as a threat to both their methods and their jobs. Owing to this recognition, many authors concentrate on the need to take account of the human side of re‐engineering, in particular the management of organizational change.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between integrative technologies and the corporation's ability to remain or gain a competitive advantage in today's fast‐paced global economy.

The authors' professional experience, extensive literature review, and personal communications on the subject provided the foundation for this research.

The global business environment requires corporations to use a variety of information and communications technologies in order to coordinate and control all activities in its global operations. In order to be competitive, firms are implementing new technologies such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), ERP II, and radio frequency identification to reduce the cost of doing business by improving operational efficiencies, establish better relationship with their business partners, as well as effectiveness by quickly responding to changes in the marketplace. Challenges and benefits of implementing these technologies by both manufacturing and service organizations are explored and examined in this paper.

Low‐cost and differentiation strategies require corporations to integrate information and communications technologies to streamline processes both within the firm and between business associates. A considerable amount of time and capital is required for acquisition and implementation of the new technology but the return on the investment is significant in the long run. Top management participation, change in management, and employee training are critical success factors in successful utilization of technology.

The paper provides useful information with regards to the importance of technology in sustaining or gaining a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Reward systems provide a number of important functions in the organization including motivating active participation of organizational members, meeting role expectations, and motivating innovation and strong commitment to the organization (Steers and Porter, 1991). Organizations worldwide are actively grappling with the translation of Deming's (1986) fourteen principles into their own unique versions of Total Quality Management. As they proceed through the stages of transforming their organizational cultures toward continuous quality improvement, they have evolved a number of reward mechanisms to assimilate workers into the TQM culture and to maintain workers' efforts toward continuous quality improvement goals. The present article examines the reward systems in several organizations in the Pacific Basin, which was chosen because of the increasing emphasis upon quality taken by companies in Australia, Asia, and the western U.S.

Cooperative strategies, both domestic and foreign, have become an important component of the strategic repertoire of firms. Various forms of interfirm alliances are redefining and transforming the very nature of competition. Considering their importance, a solid understanding of their fundamental dynamics is necessary. Different forms of alliances exist: from those that emerge because partners have some preexisting advantages such as geographic proximity or shared history to those that arise because third parties such as governments have created the enabling environment. Looking at the context and operational dynamics of various alliance configurations may help our understanding of how to manage them. This paper presents four configurations or clusters of alliances based on their origins and link the context to operational dynamics. The policy and research implications of the paper are also presented.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the inconsistent use of terminology in international collaboration, and develop a clearer typology that reflects the commercial and practical realities of modern business.

A critique of existing typologies provided the basis for the development of a more practical framework. The new typology was populated with the most prominent collaborative forms to emerge from the analysis of academic research and commercial practice.

“Structure” and “purpose” emerged as the most logical determinants in differentiating and classifying collaborative forms. Actual commercial ventures mapped on to the new typology demonstrate a good fit between these two considerations and the collaboration strategies adopted.

This work contributes much needed clarity in differentiating and classifying forms of collaboration. The key determinants of structure and purpose reflect more accurately the commercial and practical realities of modern business, and offer practitioners and researchers a logical means of mapping and analyzing collaboration strategy.

IN MAY 1960, the predecessor of this magazine, Scientific Lubrication, published an issue devoted to the subject of “ Hydraulic Systems and Oils,” intending it to be “ … of practical and theoretical value to all readers who design, manufacture, install or maintain hydraulic equipment.” The articles were of undoubted value adding, as they did, to the store of information on hydraulic oils already published. Paradoxically, one hydraulic equipment manufacturer has recently been heard to remark that the majority of this type of literature, although issued by oil companies, gives greater descriptive coverage to the equipment than it gives to the oils. The implication was that the equipment manufacturers' greatest need was for fuller information on the oils, not the equipment.