E-partnering
e-Partnering:: Moving Bricks and Mortar Online

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Abstract

The Internet has been one of the main drivers behind the growth in number of partnerships. Although e-partnerships have received attention in research, this attention has mainly been reserved for the role of the Internet firm in the partnership and for technology partnerships. This article explores the use of e-partnerships by traditional, non-Internet related firms for business development. It describes the goals these firms try to achieve and the organizational form of the e-partnerships they have chosen. A number of European cases illustrate the developments in this field and clarify the changes firms make to their e-partnerships over time. Moreover, since companies are becoming embedded in an increasingly larger number of e-partnerships, the concept of e-partnering ecosystems is explored.

Section snippets

Bricks and Mortar e-Partnering

In the past few years the number of e-partnerships has increased fast. Ernst et al. (2001), using a broad definition of e-partnerships, estimate the total number at 13,000 in 1999 alone. This increase is not limited to companies active in the Internet sector. Established incumbents – bricks and mortar companies – in traditional industries have entered into e-partnerships as well. There are a number of reasons why bricks and mortar companies have entered into e-partnerships. By means of

The Research Set-up

While e-partnering has attracted the attention of researchers for some years now, these analyses were mainly based on pure Internet partnerships and technology partnerships. Case studies into e-partnering (e.g. Zott et al., 2000) also tend to concentrate on newly created Internet firms. In contrast, this article studies partnerships that have been set up by traditional companies. In order to form a first idea about these e-partnerships, a documentary analysis was conducted to build up a

e-Partnering Strategies

The analysis of more than 150 e-partnerships revealed that the strategies pursued by bricks and mortar firms could be classified along two dimensions. The first dimension is the novelty of the intended business. Does the company aim at developing, optimising or exploiting its current business on the Internet, or is its objective the development of new business? Many bricks and mortar companies are naturally inclined to confine themselves to their current business, focusing on cost savings,

e-Partnering Structures

As in the case of e-partnering strategies, the Financial Times articles provided insight into the structures chosen for e-partnerships. Again, these may be plotted along two dimensions, the first being that of contract versus joint venture. Partnerships may be structured by contracts concluded between their participants in which their rights and obligations are defined. Alternatively, they may be set up as joint ventures, that is, separate legal entities with their own management. The number of

Four Case Studies in e-Partnering

Having analysed the different goals and structures of e-partnering, this section will take a more detailed look into e-partnerships. To achieve this, four cases have been studied corresponding with the four e-partnering types above: the Zibb-XpertBuyer partnership represents an e-channel; Autobytel Nederland is structured as an e-venture; MeetingMoreMinds is an advanced e-network and Transora is an example of an e-market. The aim is to gain a more in-depth view in the validity of our

Developments in e-Partnering

Thus far, the analysis and conclusions were mainly based on initial e-partnership announcements. The perspective now shifts to the development of e-partnerships over time. Once the partnership is running, much may change. The case studies show two major developments.

First, the dynamics underlying the cases show that most partnerships develop in the direction of the solution model. Participants discover the potential of the Internet for combining differentiated offerings into a single website,

Discussion

Bricks and mortar companies have a variety of means at their disposal to bring their business online. An important method is e-partnering. In this article, managers are offered a number of tools in designing their e-partnerships. Based on large-scale empirical research, four e-partnering strategies and four e-partnering structures have been defined. It looks like there is no one best way of e-partnering. The choice of a specific e-partnership is a function of four variables (novelty of the

Uncited References

Cohen and Levinthal, 1990 Dyer and Nobeoka, 2000

Acknowledgments

This article is based on research carried out at the Nolan Norton Institute and sponsored by Nolan, Norton & Co., Yacht ICT and Sun Microsystems. We gratefully acknowledge the support of Han van der Zee of the Nolan Norton Institute.

ARD-PIETER DE MAN, Centre for Global Corporate Positioning, Wibautstraat 3, 9th floor, 1091 GH Amsterdam, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]

Dr Ard-Pieter de Man is Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Global Corporate Positioning (CGCPmaps.com, an Internet-based alliance knowledge centre) and an Associate Professor of Strategy at Maastricht University. He has authored and co-authored many books and journal articles.

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ARD-PIETER DE MAN, Centre for Global Corporate Positioning, Wibautstraat 3, 9th floor, 1091 GH Amsterdam, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]

Dr Ard-Pieter de Man is Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Global Corporate Positioning (CGCPmaps.com, an Internet-based alliance knowledge centre) and an Associate Professor of Strategy at Maastricht University. He has authored and co-authored many books and journal articles.

MARTEN STIENSTRA, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam School of Management, Department of Strategic Management and Business Environment, Office F2-19, P.O. Box 1738, Rotterdam, NL-3000, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]

Drs Marten Stienstra is Research Associate in the Department of Strategic Management and Business Environment at Rotterdam School of Management. His research includes strategic alliances and e-business.

HENK W. VOLBERDA, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam School of Management, Department of Strategic Management and Business Environment, Office F2-24, P.O. Box 1738, Rotterdam, NL-3000, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]

Henk W. Volberda is Professor of Strategic Management and Business Policy at Erasmus University. He is Director of the Erasmus Strategic Renewal Centre, Board Member of Rotterdam School of Management, and Adviser to Stroeve Stockbrokers. He has authored Building the Flexible Firm (Oxford University Press, 1998), Rethinking Strategy (Sage) and many journal articles.

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