Collaborative advantage

Web 2.0 is driving the trend toward collaborative advantage and an ability to readily adapt systems. Systems engineering methods must evolve to fit this situation, which is characterized by several specific features ... 

Amidon DM (2003) The innovatirai superhighway harnessing intellectual capital for sustainable collaborative advantage. Butterworth-Heinemann/ Elsevier Science, Woburn... 

When two or more companies adopt long-term perspective and work together to constmct unique value that none of the partner can attain alone, then such an environment is referred to as supply chain collaboration. Due to intensified competition, individual companies have found it difficult to compete alone but need to align their supply chain partners to achieve collaborative advantage. In a collaborative ethnicity, supply chain partners work together and communicate openly. They share information to improve the supply chain visibility which reduces uncertainty they also share knowledge and expertise in all joint efforts such as joint problem-solving and new products development to smooth the operations and enhance the competitiveness. 

Kanter, R.M., 1994. Collaborative advantage the art of alliances. Harvard Bi iness Review 69,96-108. 

Before discussing the research gap, there are several terms that need to be clarified including cooperation, coordination, integration, and collaboration value creation and value appropriation common benefits and private benefits and collaborative advantage and competitive advantage. 

Based on the ERBV (Lavie 2006), collaborative advantage can be understood as a function of the combined value and rarity of all shared resources among supply chain partners (i.e., relational rents) while competitive advantage of a firm depends on the total value and rarity of the firm s own shared and non-shared resources (i.e., internal rents) and resources interactions with partners (i.e., appropriated relational rents and spillover rents). When collaboration is formed, each partner endows a subset of its resources to the collaboration with the expectation of generating common benefits from the shared resources of both hrms (Lavie 2006). 

Finally, in investigating the consequences of supply chain collaboration, existing literature ignores the collaborative advantage or joint competitive advantage achieved through collaboration. 

How does supply chain collaboration affect firms collaborative advantage and financial performance ... 

Does collaborative advantage completely mediate the relationship between supply chain collaboration and firm performance ... 

Exploring the collaborative advantage of supply chain collaboration and its impact on firm performance. 

The rest of the book is organized as follows. Chapter 2 reviews the theoretical bases and proposes the research model. Chapter 3 discusses the antecedents of supply chain collaboration. Chapter 4 explores the nature and characteristics of supply chain collaboration. Chapter 5 focuses on the consequences of supply chain collaboration—collaborative advantage and firm performance. Chapter 6 describes structured interview and Q-sort. Chapter 7 presents large-scale analysis and hypotheses testing. Chapter 8 provides a discussion of research and managerial insights. 

Cao, M., Zhang, Q. (2011). Supply chain collaboration supply chain collaboration Impact on collaborative advantage and firm performance. Journal of Operations Management, 29(3), 163-180. 

Dyer, J. H. (2000). Collaborative advantage Winning through extended enterprise supplier networks. New York, NY Oxford University Press. 

Kanter, R. M. (1994). Collaborative advantage The art of alliances. Harvard Business Review, 72, 96-108. 

Collaborative advantage is based on the relational view, which elaborates on the mechanisms of joint value creation (i.e., interfirm rent generation). It argues relational rents accrue at the collaboration level for mutual benefits. Unlike studies that acknowledge the role of both private and common benefits (Hamel 1991 Khanna et al. 1998), the relational view emphasizes common benefits that collaborative partners cannot generate independently. 

In contrast, collaborative advantage is joint competitive advantage and come from a relational rent, a common benefit that accrues to collaborative partners (Dyer and Singh 1998). This type of rent cannot be generated individually by either collaborative partner. In addition, Lavie (2006) model extends prior research on joint value creation in dyadic alliance by considering unilateral accumulation of spillover rents that produce private benefits. 

Social capitals and relationships between partners arise from the foundation of trust. Trust reduces transaction costs and even eliminates the need for detailed contracts and governance mechanisms (Bronuley and Cummings 1995). While opportunism may create short-term benefits, it incurs costs in the long run because it lacks of reputation and trust (Kumar et al. 1998). Trust helps supply chain partners create a win-win strategy for collaborative advantage (Kumar and Van Dissel 1996). 

Resource based view, relational view, extended resource based view, and social dilemma theories perceive collaborative advantage (i.e., joint competitive advantage) as the consequence of supply chain collaboration. 

As consequences of supply chain collaboration, collaborative advantage and firm performance will be discussed in the following section. In addition, hypotheses will be developed in this chapter. 

Synthesizing the above studies, this research conceptualizes collaborative advantage as the following five sub-components process efficiency, offering flexibility, business synergy, quality, and innovation (Table 5.1). These collaborative advantage and performance are viewed from the perspective of an individual supply chain member. More specifically, the focus concerns the focal firm s overall view of the performance outcomes of supply chain relationships (Duffy and Feame 2004). 

Based on multiple theories, the framework (Fig. 2.1) that relates constructs of IT resources, lOS appropriation, collaborative culture, trust, SC collaboration, collaborative advantage, and firm performance has been developed to conjecture probable truth. In the following sections, hypotheses proposed in the framework will be discussed. 

Hypothesis 5 Supply chain collaboration has a significant positive effect on collaborative advantage. 

Foss, N., Nielsen, B. (2010). Researching collaborative advantage Some coruteptual and multi-level issues. SMG Working Paper No. 6/2010, Copenhagen Business School, ISBN 978-87-91815-59-1. 

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