The three papers in Volume 17 report new theory and in-depth descriptions of interfirm network behavior. Each paper includes extensive reviews of the relevant literature on interfirm network behavior as well as data analysis using empirical positivistic and/or case study research methods.

This volume examines the nature of interfirm networks and their role in promoting industrial competitiveness. Where previous work in this area has tended to be descriptive, the distinguished contributors to this volume present a balanced theoretical and empirical approach to interfirm networking drawing on a variety of international case studies. I

This Handbook provides a state-of-the-art survey of research in business history. Business historians study the historical evolution of business systems, entrepreneurs and firms, as well as their interaction with their political, economic, and social environment. They address issues of central concern to researchers in management studies and business administration, as well as economics, sociology and political science, and to historians. They employ a range of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, but all share a belief in the importance of understanding change over time. The Oxford Handbook of Business History has brought together leading scholars to provide a comprehensive, critical, and interdisciplinary examination of business history, organized into four parts: Approaches and Debates; Forms of Business Organization; Functions of Enterprise; and Enterprise and Society. The Handbook shows that business history is a wide-ranging and dynamic area of study, generating compelling empirical data, which has sometimes confirmed and sometimes contested widely-held views in management and the social sciences. The Oxford Handbook of Business History is a key reference work for scholars and advanced students of Business History, and a fascinating resource for social scientists in general.

Challenging the current flood of mergers and acquisitions this book presents an alternative, more efficient strategy of inter-firm alliances. In the context of recent developments in international business, the discussion takes in alliances between buyers and suppliers, between competitors and between firms in different industries. This theory is illustrated and elaborated with empirical detail from a variety of international case-studies. These studies include the car industry in the US, Europe and Japan, the Dutch photocopier industry and ten European electronic suppliers ... Inter-firm Alliances combines resource-based views, transaction-cost analysis and institutional economics to develop an original and comprehensive theory of inter-firm alliances and a coherent method for managing them.

Developments in technology and globalisation have led to an upsurge in inter-organizational relations. This book surveys the current field, connects differing perspectives and answers questions about who should collaborate, why, and how.

Business Networks in East Asian Capitalisms: Enduring Trends, Emerging Patterns builds on the foundational studies conducted in the 1990s by gathering contemporary empirical and theoretical chapters which explore these themes in a comparative perspective. The book includes contributions from authors working on the relationship between personal and business networks in countries including China, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. Authors emphasize enduring trends in social and business networks and/or track new emerging patterns, both within East Asian nations or between East Asia and other regions such as Europe, Africa, and the Americas. - Provides contemporary, up-to-date empirical material and theoretical interpretation, charting the influence of more recent globalizing trends and institutional change in the region - Includes studies of networks within PRC, between PRC and other regions, and in Chinese communities - Offers studies centered on Korean, Japanese, and South East Asian Networks - Includes a geographical scope that will be broader than other books, aiming to include studies of newly developing economies in South East Asia that share a common cultural heritage (e.g Vietnam)

This work provides an account of the emergence of business groups in China and details their organizational structure. The relationship between various aspects of group structure and the financial performance of member firms is examined.

This title was first published in 2000: The first book which brings together and interprets both the theoretical concepts associated with the study of networks in the business world, and the policy applications being applied to the practical building and development of such networks. It maps the changes in the culture of economic development policy that occurred in the UK during the 1990s, incorporating a detailed assessment of the contribution that the Training and Enterprise Councils made to business support policies. The book is published at a time when network and cluster building has risen to the top of economic development agendas not only in UK, but in many countries throughout the world. It offers the most detailed insight so far available into the structure, motivations and processes involved in developing business networks through institutional intervention. The book is relevant to anyone with an interest in business policy and theory.