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This study aims to determine the factors that encourage Indonesian banks to collaborate in the banking networks ATM Prima and ATM Bersama to achieve business efficiencies.

A combination of methods is used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. Factor analysis and different testing technics are used. The data were obtained through interviews with managers of the banks involved in the two banking networks included in this study.

This research addresses ATM banking from three perspectives: banks that collaborate in ATM networks, banks that are joint ATM providers and banking customers that use ATMs. The results show that the banks in the study are more concerned about cost-effectiveness and cost-efficiencies in both the operational and investment aspects of supporting their ATM infrastructures. ATM providers place more importance on creating the most user-friendly, stable, wide-ranging and continuous system of services by collaborating with other banks in networks that provide ATM services. Customers put more importance on paying the minimum possible administration fees and the availability of specific banking services across a wide area.

This research took place over a period of only one year. This limited the depth of the data collected. A longer study using data that cover more than one fiscal year would have generated more detailed information.

This study places importance on maximizing cost-efficiencies to keep bank fees low for customers. There are significant investment and operational costs associated with setting up and operating ATMs and of adding and managing additional ATMs. This is particularly so in an era when their use is on the decline owing to the increasing use of electronic banking.

The social implications of ATM banking refer to the reduced administration fees customers pay as banks incur cost savings from collaborating on infrastructure and services. The availability of ATMs from specific banks could be replaced by one joint ATM machine that is situated in a specific area where electronic banking is not available. Banks’ customers tend to move to other banking services, and this means banks could lose a lot of their existing customers unless they can come up with unique services that are both accessible and user-friendly.

The originality of this research is that it recommends that some strategies Indonesian banks could use to become more efficient and effective, including forming ATM alliances to maximize efficiency and to achieve a competitive advantage.

The purpose of this paper is to respond to the call of international marketing professionals for more studies on strategies that firms use in response to the complexities of interacting with other institutions in the emerging markets (EMs) of sub-Saharan Africa. The key research question investigated by employing the exploratory qualitative data gathered is: What strategies and global alliances do small local firms (SLFs) in Nigeria adopt to succeed under complex market conditions?

The methodology employed is exploratory qualitative research. The authors conducted extended interviews to generate rich case study data from the top management of the selected SLFs in Nigeria. The interview data were assessed using open, axial and selective coding to uncover macro-narratives that guide SLFs’ strategies and global alliances.

The macro-narratives derived from the qualitative case analysis reveal a theoretical framework centered on three major elements of competitive strategies in Nigeria: build global capacity and strategic alliances from the get-go; develop local strategic alliances; master matching alliance partners’ needs to create innovative payment plans and, when necessary, shift the transaction cost burden to alliance partners. Matching theory rather than traditional network theories is better at explicating SLFs’ alliances in Nigeria. Implementation of these strategies requires flexible strategic initiatives.

The study adapts institutional interaction theory, network theory, matching alliance perspective, trade credit theories and the literature on small firms’ strategies in EMs to explicate successful small local firm strategies and global alliances under complex market conditions in Nigeria. The recognition that SLFs regularly migrate and shift the burden of transactions’ cost to multiple stakeholders in the supply network by matching customers and supplier needs is important. The discovery of matching theory in explicating SLFs’ global alliances in Nigeria is unique to this study.

Eli Lilly's director of alliance management tells how the company has learned to make a success of its partnership strategy.

The author describes best practices and key principles.

The Lilly process has proven successful – of the last six products the firm has launched, four are promoted with a partner.

Lilly has developed a “three‐dimensional fit” analysis that helps the firm identify elements of strategic fit, cultural fit and operational fit between Lilly and a partner company.

Lilly describes how the elements of their alliance program increase the likelihood of success for individual partnerships and how a continuous learning process contributes to the success of future alliances.

Although the benefits of strategic alliances are well documented, whether strategic alliances can be a viable entry strategy option for small and medium‐size enterprises (SMEs) to successfully penetrate markets held by major incumbent suppliers is less clear. In this paper, strategic alliances are shown to be an effective entry‐cum‐deterrence strategy for SMEs to successfully penetrate markets that are well established and dominated by major corporations. In addition, the conditions under which SMEs can use strategic alliances as an entry strategy without restricting themselves to target only those markets ignored by bigger firms are identified. In terms of methodology, this paper follows a deductive approach – one based on game theory, to examine explicitly the reactions of bigger firms to the entry of SMEs into their markets, specifically taking into account the resource limitations faced by SMEs. To verify that the theoretical arguments presented are consistent with practice, two cases of the use of strategic alliances by SMEs as an entry strategy to penetrate markets dominated by major corporations are examined. The practices and experiences of these SMEs were found to be consistent with the theoretical arguments presented here.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

Strategic alliances can be effective ways to diffuse new technologies rapidly, to enter a new market, to bypass governmental restrictions expeditiously, and to learn quickly from the leading firms in a given field. However, strategic alliances are not simple or easy to create, develop, and support. Strategic alliances projects often fail because of tactical errors made by management. By using a well managed strategic alliances agreement, companies can gain in markets that would otherwise be uneconomical. Considerable time and energy must be put forth by all involved in order to create a successful alliance. It is essential that corporations enter into strategic alliances arrangements with a comprehensive plan outlining detailed expectations, requirements, and expected benefits.

CEOs are increasingly turning to alliances as a way to grow their business and maximize shareholder value. They are searching for growth strategies while confronting a host of new forces that include intensified competition, rapid technology advances, upstream innovation and rising development costs. These forces tend to push corporations out of their comfort zones and contribute to disappointing success rates. Alliances are different from other structural transactions, such as a mergers or acquisitions, and need to be managed differently. To begin with, alliances are larger, messier to manage and somewhat open‐ended in terms of their duration and focus. They are an ongoing activity, often run as a distinct business operation. To obtain specific business objectives, such as getting products to market faster, these newer kinds of alliances are taking nontraditional forms. Accenture has identified five forms, including “invasive relationships” where significant amounts of technology and personnel are shared, or “multifunction” where different core functions are shared toward a common objective. We have found that companies can achieve high performance in alliances by focusing on six factors described in this article.

The purpose of this paper is to identify different information flow strategies to enhance integration in strategic alliances and studies these strategies with respect to contextual factors and the impact on performance.

The paper examines empirical data gathered from 56 manufacturing companies, describing 112 supply chain relationships. An empirical taxonomy is created based on cluster analysis.

Based on a parsimonious description of inter‐firm information flows in the literature and this paper's empirical findings, three types of alliances are identified: Silent; Communicative; and IT intensive. While Silent alliances have the poorest overall performance, substantial similarities are found between Communicative and IT intensive alliances. In particular, the analysis suggests that IT intensive alliances, albeit performing better on operational capabilities, are not performing better on relationship satisfaction compared to Communicative alliances. Additional analyses indicate that partners of an IT intensive alliance are substantially more interdependent and larger in size.

This research presents a taxonomy of information flow strategies in a supply chain context. This research is not describing causality, since the data are not longitudinal in nature.

Managers need to selectively invest in IT according to an overall supply chain integration strategy, which also takes softer, less technological forms of integration into consideration.

This research provides insight into inter‐firm information flows from a contingency perspective, recognizing heterogeneity of firms and supply chain practices.

The purpose of this paper is propose a strategic framework for understanding interpartner negotiation dynamics in alliances.

The authors define interpartner negotiations as a process of reconciling and integrating the interests of the partners in an alliance, and consider four types of interpartner negotiation strategies – problem solving, contending, yielding, and compromising – and then discuss the dynamics of these negotiation strategies in the formation, operation, and outcome stages of alliance development.

The framework makes clear that the four types of interpartner negotiation strategies identified in the article need to be appreciated as having differential impact at each stage of alliance development.

As interpartner negotiations occur at all stages of alliance evolution, future research may seek to empirically assess the impact of different interpartner negotiation strategies.

The paper discusses how alliance managers can deploy effective interpartner negotiation strategies for achieving alliance objectives at each of the three developmental stages.

The article responds to the need of managers with alliance responsibilities for a framework to help identify and exploit the most effective ways to conduct interpartner negotiations in alliances for productive interactions at different alliance development stages.

Distils the key insights for management development from the four research papers, in this special issue taken individually as well as collectively. The perspective taken is one of strategy – for the industry practitioner or strategy/management consultant. The key insights that extend beyond the scope of individual research papers will be presented first, under the following themes: Lessons of brand/differentiation strategy; Managing a leading brand; A lesson from the case study; Strategy in a complex, turbulent and uncertain globalising environment. Key insights that are single research paper specific will be presented as follows: The story of Singapore Airlines and the Singapore Girl; Air wars in Asia: competitive and collaborative strategies and tactics in action; The Development of the airline industry from 1978 to 1998: a strategic global overview; Beyond Singapore Girl: grand and product/service differentiation strategies in the new millennium.