International Cooperation: Motivation, Success Factors and Critical Assessment

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1.3, University of Hannover (Corporate Management/ Organisation), course: Seminar: Cooperation and Leadership in an International Business Context, language: English, abstract: The Internationalisation of the markets in the world is past-pacing. Keywords like 'Globalisation' and 'International Companies' are characterizing this development. For many companies, this growing interconnection of the global economy represents new challenges for the management, primarily evoked by an increasing international competition which is above all characterized by accelerated developments in technology, shorter life cycles of products or lower barriers to market entry. To overcome these complex challenges and to keep up competitive advantages, companies can often not rely on their own potentials anymore. To survive in the international environment many of them are forced to agree on cooperation with other companies. They consider international cooperation as a form of organisation to ensure the access to resources of strategic importance and as a competitive factor on fast changing markets. This paper will try to substantiate these notions. It is concerned with possible motivations leading companies to international cooperation, as well as with essential success factors. Therefore, the terms 'international company' and 'international cooperation' will be elucidated and definitions will be given after this introduction. Chapter three analyses the motivations and reasons for cooperation. Subsequent, possible success factors are being discussed according to a phase model of the cooperation process in chapter four. Finally, a critical assessment of cooperation is made by looking at potential risks. The paper closes with a conclusion summarizing the acquired insights.