According to Gianni Lorenzoni and Charles Baden-Fuller (in ‘Creating a strategic centre to manage a web of partners’, 1995, in De Wit & Meyer, 2010, Reading 7.2), what are the critical roles of the strategic centre (or central firm) in inter-firm networks?
Planning, organizing, leading, and controlling
Selection, regulation, allocation, and evaluation
Design, financing, logistics, and public relations
Strategic outsourcing, capability, technology, and competition.
According to Lorenzoni and Baden-Fuller (in ‘Creating a strategic centre to manage a web of partners’, 1995, in De Wit & Meyer, 2010, Reading 7.2), what is the expectation of central firms towards partners in the strategic networks?
Partners are expected to play a limited role in undertaking production
Strategic centres, typically, specify exactly what they want partners to do
Partners are expected to deliver goods and services to the markets in which the network is involved
Partners are expected to be innovative and to do more than follow the rules.
How do Lorenzoni and Baden-Fuller (in ‘Creating a strategic centre to manage a web of partners’, 1995, in De Wit & Meyer, 2010, Reading 7.2) name the approach, that a central firm can employ. to bring new ideas into the strategic network?
Borrow-develop-lend strategy
None of the above
Take-develop-sell approach
Learn-develop-employ principle.
According to Lorenzoni and Baden-Fuller (in ‘Creating a strategic centre to manage a web of partners’, 1995, in De Wit & Meyer, 2010, Reading 7.2), what are the common mechanisms, that strategic networks use, to create sense of cooperation across competing firms?
Joint ventures and cross-shareholdings
Outsourcing
Diversification
Vertical integration of functions between partners.
According to Lorenzoni and Baden-Fuller (in ‘Creating a strategic centre to manage a web of partners’, 1995, in De Wit & Meyer, 2010, Reading 7.2), what is one of the critical core competencies that central firms in strategic networks have to develop?
A flat organizational structure of the network that will promote network flexibility
Strategies for expansion and growth
Vertically integrated network that will establish closer links between the partners
A strong brand image and effective support systems.
Lorenzoni and Baden-Fuller (in ‘Creating a strategic centre to manage a web of partners’, 1995, in De Wit & Meyer, 2010, Reading 7.2) argue that, for strategic alliances or networks to work effectively, it requires all of the members to contribute all the time and without fail. According to Lorenzoni and Baden-Fuller, which firms in the network are responsible for developing trust and reciprocity in the system?
All members have the same responsibility
The most profitable firm in the system
The central firms
The largest firms in the networks.
According to Lorenzoni and Baden-Fuller (in ‘Creating a strategic centre to manage a web of partners’, 1995, in De Wit & Meyer, 2010, Reading 7.2), what is the major feature that differentiates strategic networks from most conventional organizations (including various partnerships among firms)?
There is no significant difference
In strategic networks, strategy implementation is the responsibility of the central firm, whereas in conventional organizations, strategy implementation is the responsibility of the overall organizations
In strategic networks, central firms do not share their conceptions of strategy with other organizations, whereas in conventional partnerships, firms systematically share their ideas with their suppliers and customers
In strategic networks, strategizing and structuring are shared processes between the strategic centre and its partners, whereas in conventional organizations, strategizing and structuring are processes rarely shared among the partners.