Dancing with Gorillas: How small companies can partner effectively with MNCS

California Management Review

Volumn 51, Issue 1, 2008, Pages

  Prashantham, Shameen ^a   Birkinshaw, Julian ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 55949101600     PISSN: 00081256     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/41166466     Document Type: Article

References (30)

1. J. Hagel and M. Singer, "Unbundling the Corporation," Harvard Business Review 712 (March/April 1999): 133-141.
2. Professor Prahalad mentioned this during a question/answer session following the presentation of the 2006 Booz Allen Hamilton Distinguished Scholar Award at the Academy of Management meeting in Atlanta, USA.
3. T.L. Friedman, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Globalized World in the Twenty-first Century (London: Allen Lane, 2005).
4. J. Birkinshaw, J. Bessant, and R. Delbridge, "Finding, Forming, and Performing: Creating Networks for Discontinuous Innovation," California Management Review, 49/3 (Spring 2007): 67-84.
5. Some of these ideas are discussed, in the context of emerging economy firms more generally, in N. Dawar and T. Frost, "Competing with Giants: Survival Strategies for Emerging Market Companies," Harvard Business Review, 77/2 (March/April 1999): 119-129.
6. W. Kuemmerle, "The Entrepreneur's Path to Global Expansion," MIT Sloan Management Review, 46/2 (Winter 2005): 42-49.
7. Y.L. Doz, J. Santos, and P. Williamson, From Global to Metanational: How Companies Win in the Knowledge Economy (Boston, MA: HBS Press, 2001).
8. J. Birkinshaw and N. Hood, "Unleash Innovation in Foreign Subsidiaries," Harvard Business Review, 73/3 (March 2001): 131-137.
9. Y. Doz and M. Kosonen, "The New Deal at the Top," Harvard Business Review, 85/6 (June 2007): 98-104.
10. Ongoing research on strategy making episodes suggests that their ritualistic nature could paradoxically lead to creative ideas during a meeting but to little subsequent action thereafter; see G. Johnson, S. Prashantham and S.W. Floyd, "Toward a Mid-Range Theory of Strategy Workshops," AIM Working Paper #35 (2006).
11. S.A. Alvarez and J.B. Barney, "How Entrepreneurial Firms can Benefit from Alliances with Large Partners," Academy of Management Executive, 15/1 (2001): 139-148.
12. Y.L. Doz and G. Hamel, Alliance Advantage: The Art of Creating Value through Partnering (Boston, MA: HBS Press, 1998).
13. Strategic asymmetry relates to irregular war, an issue of considerable contemporary interest in a geopolitical environment where the U.S. and its allies face threats from unconventional non-state entities. See, for example, CS. Gray, "Irregular Warfare: One Nature, Many Characters," Strategic Studies Quarterly, 1/2 (Winter 2007): 35-57.
14. Also Metz ad D.V. Johnson II, Asymmetry and U.S. Military Strategy: Definition, Background, and Strategic Concepts (Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, 2001).
15. Our use of the asymmetry war imagery reflects gorillas' greater power vis-à-vis small enterprises. Our argument is that small entrepreneurs must therefore adeptly use various means (strategies that we identify here) to achieve their ends (e.g., growth). This is consistent with recent research on MNC power relative to other low-power actors; see C. Bouquet and J. Birkinshaw, "Managing Power in the Multinational Corporation: How Low-Power Actors Gain Influence," Journal of Management, 34/3 (2008): 477-508.
16. For a more general treatment of power, see J. Pfeffer, Managing with Power: Politics and Influence in Organizations (Boston, MA: HBS Press, 1992).
17. C.J. Ancker III and M.D. Burke, "Doctrine for Asymmetric War," Military Review, 83 (July/August 2003): 18-25.
18. P.S. Ring, Y.L. Doz, and P.M. Oik, "Managing Formation Processes in R&D Consortia," California Management Review, 47/4 (Summer 2005): 137-156.
19. B. McEvily and A. Zaheer, "Bridging Ties: A Source of Firm Heterogeneity in Competitive Capabilities," Strategic Management Journal, 20/12 (1999): 1133-1156.
20. P.H. Andersen, "Regional Clusters in a Global World: Production Relocation, Innovation, and Industrial Decline," California Management Review, 49/1 (Fall 2006): 101-122.
21. For more on this initiative, see S. Prashantham and R.B. McNaughton, "Facilitating Links Between MNC Subsidiaries and SMEs: The Scottish Technology and Collaboration (STAC) Initiative," International Business Review, 15/5 (October 2006): 447-462.
22. Principles of judo strategy (somewhat akin to asymmetric war) include avoiding a frontal assault, as we emphasize in our framework, and are concerned with using a more powerful rival's strength against it; see D.B. Yoffie and M.A. Cusumano, "Judo Strategy: The Competitive Dynamics of Internet Time," Harvard Business Review, 77/1 (January/February 1999): 70-81;
23. D.B. Yoffie and M. Kwak, Judo Strategy: Turning Your Competitors' Strength to Your Advantage (Boston, MA: HBS Press, 2003).
24. "STAC Project Updates," STAC E-Zine (June 2006), available at 〈www.thestac.org.uk/index.cfm/page/22/resourceid/44/〉, accessed May 7, 2008.
25. For a "partner profile" of Regio, see a case study by Ericsson at 〈www.ericsson.com/mobilityworld/sub/articles/case-studies/04dec01〉, accessed May 7, 2008.
26. As featured in the Nasscom publication titled "India is Innovation."
27. A.C. Inkpen and E.W.K. Tsang, "Social Capital, Networks, and Knowledge Transfer," Academy of Management Review, 30/1 (January 2005): 146-165.
28. For an academic treatment of the notion of boundary spanning within MNCs, see T. Kostova and K. Roth, "Social Capital in Multinational Corporations and a Micro-Macro Model of its Formation, Academy of Management Review, 28/2 (April 2003): 297-317.
29. In an article in Fast Company, Jim Collins discussed the relative merits of a "built to last" versus a "built to flip" mentality among startup founders, and he observed that the startups most likely to be bought for a good price were paradoxically the ones that were seeking to become great companies themselves, and not the ones seeking to get acquired. J. Collins, "Built to Flip," Fast Company, 32 (February 2000).
30. "Hungry Tiger, Dancing Elephant," The Economist, April 7, 2007, pp. 69-71.