Riassunto analitico
Enterprises operate in a global economic context animated by the presence of a plurality of markets, characterized by highly different cultural and socio-economic environments and source of new opportunities and threats. The strengthening of the competition, which has taken on a global dimension, has increased the degree of complexity and uncertainty of the economic environment, determined by the presence of a plurality of actors (suppliers, competitors, customers, national and international organizations) and by the acceleration of technological innovations, which are the cause of the shortening of the products’ lifecycle. The globalization of markets creates new growth opportunities, but, at the same time, requires companies to acquire new skills to maintain or develop competitive advantages in the international context. In the face of the complexities of the international environment, many companies become aware of the frequent inadequacy of their own resources, knowledge and internal skills to enter, for example, new culturally and socio-economically distant markets.
In this context, international collaboration agreements between companies operating in different countries represent the strategy capable of responding to the limits of companies in controlling environmental uncertainty and complexity. They allow to compensate for internal vulnerabilities by sharing costs, risks and knowledge of other companies, and by carrying out a number of activities together that it is not convenient to carry out independently or entrust to market operators. They also allow to reduce the market complexity and uncertainty by controlling the actors of the external environment. By establishing relationships with competitors, suppliers and customers, the company transforms a potential customer into an ally; in this way, it also increases control over the socio-political and cultural environment of the foreign market and the ability to seize the opportunities or contain the threats that arise.
Defined as "hybrid forms" , international agreements are methods of coordination of intermediate market relations with regard to the two extremes which place, on the one hand, the strategies of complete outsourcing of their management (such as indirect export) and, on the other, those of complete internationalization (such as direct export or foreign direct investment).
In recent years, a growing diffusion of collaborations between companies operating in different countries has occurred in different forms, ranging from commercial agreements, such as piggyback, franchising, and others concerning distribution and marketing, to technical-productive ones, such as the various forms of production contracts and licensing, up to the more structured collaboration projects, such as equity joint ventures. The spread of international agreements has also significantly affected Italian companies, especially the small ones, for which collaborations with foreign companies, often competitors, represent the solution to manage the entry on a new market. Despite the high popularity, however, there are numerous cases of failures: studies conducted by McKinsey and Price Waterhouse Coopers show that there is more than 50% probability that an agreement will fail within the first five years of life. It is therefore relevant to understand how to create and manage a successful collaboration in order to exploit the advantages associated with this method of entering foreign markets.
For this reason, the study in this chapter is aimed at understanding what an international agreement is, the main forms of collaboration to enter a foreign market and the articulation of their formation and management process, placing particular emphasis on the reasons that induce companies to make use of it, on the choice of the partner to collaborate with, on the negotiation process of the contents of the agreement.
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