Business Cooperation

The aim of the research conducted was to try to identify the competences of managers that positively influence employee trust. The relationship identified between managers' competences and employees' trust seems extremely interesting. It became the inspiration for the considerations presented in this article. Design/methodology/approach: The survey was conducted using the CAWI method, based on the author's survey questionnaire with a total of 14 questions. A Likert scale was used in the research process. Findings: The collected factual material exposes the special role in the process of building intra-organisational trust of such groups of competences as communication or human capital management. In addition, the studied influence of personality traits and trust determinants made it apparent that, for employees, one of the most important characteristics of a manager is emotional maturity. Research limitations/implications: The analysis of the survey results was carried out on the basis of 216 correctly completed questionnaires. Further research should be carried out on a larger number of respondents, taking into account industries and professional groups. Originality/value: This article is based on a thorough analysis of the literature on the topic and the authors' own research. It presents a model of managers' competences positively influencing employees' trust, developed on the basis of factual material. It is addressed to researchers dealing with the subject and managers seeking solutions in building intra-organisational trust.

Entre la diversa documentación incorporada en el Centro de Documentación Ramir Medir Museu del Suro de Palafrugell, adquiere un especial interés para el conocimiento de la historia de la industria del corcho en Catalunya, los archivos de empresas de compra, procesamiento y de producción de maquinaria. De los diversos fondos y colecciones, se encuentra el fondo Joaquim Esteva S.A., de la empresa familiar Esteva, fundada en 1836 por Miquel Esteva Martinell, que tuvo su taller dedicado a la producción de tapones de corcho en la localidad de Palafrugell, comarca del Baix Empordà (Girona, España).

La confianza, el compromiso y la satisfacción son identificados como los conceptos más importantes en el establecimiento de relaciones de negocio entre fabricante y proveedor en mercados competitivos. Sin embargo, existe una falta de consenso acerca de cómo estos tres constructos se relacionan entre sí. Este estudio tiene como objetivo comprobar que la satisfacción juega un importante papel como mediador entre el compromiso y la confianza, y si la satisfacción influye en tres resultados importantes de las relaciones comerciales: la cooperación, la coordinación y la continuidad. Se recogieron datos de las organizaciones que forman parte de las 500 empresas más grandes de Sudáfrica a través de entrevistas telefónicas asistidas por ordenador. Los resultados apoyan la propuesta de marco conceptual del estudio, que muestra que la confianza y el compromiso se relacionan positivamente con la satisfacción, y que la satisfacción está relacionada positivamente con la coordinación, la cooperac...

El objetivo del trabajo es plantear una agenda de investigación para el estudio de la organización cuyo fin es integrar empresas. Se reflexiona sobre los problemas organizacionales que enfrenta y la forma en que ha sido objeto de estudio en algunos proyectos de investigación mexicanos y españoles. El análisis y la comparación proveen pautas no solo para su estudio sino también para su fortalecimiento y promoción.

Desde, pelo menos, o início do século XIX que um conjunto de famílias com origem no Algarve central se dedica à extração, transformação industrial e comercialização de cortiça um pouco por todo o sul de Portugal. A cronologia identificada, bem como o âmbito geográfico alargado, fazem deste grupo social um elemento a ter em conta pela historiografia sempre que se analisar a génese e o desenvolvimento do negócio corticeiro em Portugal. Este artigo, baseado numa grande multiplicidade de fontes e bibliografia, vem demonstrar diacrónica e espacialmente o importante papel que esta comunidade desempenhou, para que no futuro também os corticeiros de Loulé, São Brás de Alportel e Faro tenham o devido destaque na História do setor corticeiro em Portugal, o que ainda não acontece.

Zveza lastnikov gozdov Slovenije (ZLGS) povezuje zasebne lastnike gozdov, povezane v 19 društev lastnikov gozdov (DLG), gozdarsko društvo, tri strojne krožke in solastniško skupnost. Ker se ZLGS srečuje s problemom nestalnih finančnih sredstev ter profesionalizacije dela, je njeno delovanje omejeno le na določene naloge, med katerimi je najpomembnejša zastopanje lastnikov gozdov pri sprejemanju z gozdom povezane zakonodaje. V cilju izboljšanja delovanja ZLGS je bil namen raziskave analizirati zadovoljstvo članov z delovanjem ZLGS, ugotoviti kakšna so njihova pričakovanja do ZLGS, katerim področjem dela naj se ZLGS v prihodnosti bolj posveča glede na potrebe članov ter ali so člani ZLGS pripravljeni na poslovno sodelovanje z ZLGS. Podatki so bili pridobljeni z intervjuvanjem predsednikov/predstavnikov članov ZLGS. Člani ZLGS so v raziskavi izkazali zadovoljstvo z delom ZLGS, predvsem zaradi njene vključenosti v procese sprejemanja zakonodaje, povezane z gozdovi. Zadovoljni so tudi s ...

This paper examines whether the behavioural patterns of international partnerships differ from those of domestic partnerships. For this purpose, we use a sample of partnerships established between 1990 and 2002 in which any Spanish company listed on the Spanish continuous market has participated. We find that the number of international partnerships has grown over this period. Spanish companies enter into agreements primarily to expand their activities abroad, although on occasion they serve as a bridge for foreign companies to penetrate the Spanish market. We contrast a set of exploratory hypotheses regarding the relationship between the types of partnerships and their main characteristics: number of partners, functional area, nature of the agreement, legal form, nature of the partners, sector to which they belong, etc. Our results indicate that, in most cases, there is a relationship between the type of partnership and these variables, which points to a differential behaviour of i...

La globalizacion ha propiciado que las diversas relaciones existentes entre los competidores, lleve a las empresas a centrarse en actividades y roles, en lugar de posiciones verticales u horizontales en la cadena de valor. Por tanto, el objetivo principal de este articulo es analizar el papel de la cooperacion empresarial y su efecto en el fomento de la innovacion, para presentar informacion relevante sobre diversas estrategias y su implementacion en la praxis corporativa. En este estudio documental, se realizo un analisis de la literatura sobre cooperacion empresarial e innovacion. Para ello, se sintetizan, organizan y clasifican diversos trabajos que contribuyen a dicha reflexion, para ratificar el papel de la cooperacion como fuente de innovacion y mecanismo formal para su articulacion efectiva, en la pequena y mediana empresa turistica. Asi, la evidencia teorica analizada, demuestra que las empresas que actuan aisladamente no pueden alcanzar los mismos beneficios que las que tom...

Precision guidance and control of an autonomous, wind-propelled catamaran has been demonstrated by the Atlantis, a modified Prindle-19 catamaran, to be experimentally capable of tracking straight line segments to better than 0.3 meters (1 -σ). This paper extends Atlantis's guidance and navigation system to provide precision control while traversing a series of way-points and adds station keeping functionality, that is the ability for Atlantis to maintain her position at a given way-point in the presence of unknown water currents while motor powered. To achieve this, segmented trajectories are developed using the specified way-points forming line segments and arcs as path primitives. If a segment is unreachable directly due to the wind direction, a real-time tacking control mode is enabled and the Atlantis tacks within a given lane width until its destination is reached. For simulation a nonlinear model of the Atlantis was developed that includes realistic wind and water current models. Monte Carlo simulations of this new guidance and control system on the nonlinear model demonstrates the Atlantis is capable of maintaining a cross-track error of less than one meter throughout the path.

The aim of this article is to broaden exploratory perspective of the problem of interorganizational cooperation. Economists often pay greater attention to economic (e.g. transaction costs, access to new capabilities) and market (e.g. increasing market power) factors underlying the decision to cooperate with other organizations and seem to neglect the so-called soft factors determining eventual success or failure of cooperation. The article presents a theoretical study in which on the basis of a broad literature study, the author examines selected factors highly influencing the shape and efficiency of interfirm alliances, that are mentioned not only by economists but are subjects of sociological and psychological analyses as well. Among all, the so-called relational capabilities may be of greatest importance. Partnering experience, social embeddedness, interorganizational trust, learning ability, as well as relational mechanisms may be considered as critical success factors in cooper...

During the first decade of this century, the Portuguese knitwear industry, and textile cluster, were strongly affected by globalisation and seemed destined to decline. The Portuguese knitwear industry developed for decades a business model based on price as the main competitive factor, and that model was no longer able to support competitiveness against low wages countries. Portuguese knitwear industry made a dramatic change towards a competition based on value to the client. The companies adopted as primary differentiation drives technological innovation, design, fashion, and services customer-oriented, together with more presence on international fairs and exhibitions. The new strategy resulted in the significant growth of exports that reached 40% from 2009 to 2018. The restructuring of the cluster, however, changed it significantly, and the number of companies was reduced by almost 50%. The competitive change made the entire Portuguese textile cluster an international case study ...

Reports on and analyses the results from a survey (conducted by Latif Adam) of 210 small or medium-sized garment enterprises in the Municipality of Bandung and the District of Bandung, Indonesia. This survey was intended to identify factors that led SMEs to engage in cooperative interfirm agreements; to identify the influences affecting the duration of such cooperative agreements and to determine the elements which respondents considered to be important for the long-term success of such agreements. In addition; the survey enabled the potential benefits of such agreements to be ranked. Trust was found to be an important consideration in the formation and duration of such agreements and most SMEs saw as the major benefits of such agreements the greater access this enabled them to have to markets. The implications of such cooperation for expanding the involvement of Indonesia’s garment industry in global trade are considered.

Covering the knowledge economy scenario, this article attempts to illustrate the analysis of the employment of knowledge transmission channels in the EuroClusTex, cross-border textile and clothing cluster between northern Portugal and Galicia. Therefore, an exploratory research was conducted. Primary data were obtained through participation in events, from interviews with key informants (entrepreneurs, leaders of cluster support institutions and government representatives). The secondary data were provided by the cluster support institutions, international organizations and the literature review. The results showed that EuroClusTex contributes to the competitiveness of regions, boosting trade relations between Galicia and northern Portugal. The most effective knowledge transmission channels in EuroClusTex were identified as: imitation, relationship with suppliers, public policy and human resources training. Experiences similar to EuroClusTex can be considered and served as examples for the development of clustering policies in other countries.

EnglishPortugal currently leads worldwide all the facets of the cork business, from the forest market, through manufacturing and the trade of cork products. This scenario is enhanced with the fact that in Portugal the cork oak trees have the best conditions for their development. However, up to 1930s, this role was played by other countries, especially Spain, and is important to understand the factors that contributed to this situation. One of them might have been poor forestry practices not only regarding the extraction of the cork, but also the lack of incentive for the proper expansion of the cork oak tree area. These factors are precisely those that this article seeks to measure through the analysis of a thousand fixed-rent contracts and / or purchase of cork, signed in two of the main producing regions of cork in Portugal - Alentejo - and in Spain - Extremadura and Andalusia - , thus obtaining, by this way, a comparative perspective between the them. portuguesAtualmente Portuga...

El objetivo del trabajo es plantear una agenda de investigación para el estudio de la organización cuyo fin es integrar empresas. Se reflexiona sobre los problemas organizacionales que enfrenta y la forma en que ha sido objeto de estudio en algunos proyectos de investigación mexicanos y españoles. El análisis y la comparación proveen pautas no solo para su estudio sino también para su fortalecimiento y promoción.

Covering the knowledge economy scenario, this article attempts to illustrate the analysis of the employment of knowledge transmission channels in the EuroClusTex, cross-border textile and clothing cluster between northern Portugal and Galicia. Therefore, an exploratory research was conducted. Primary data were obtained through participation in events, from interviews with key informants (entrepreneurs, leaders of cluster support institutions and government representatives). The secondary data were provided by the cluster support institutions, international organizations and the literature review. The results showed that EuroClusTex contributes to the competitiveness of regions, boosting trade relations between Galicia and northern Portugal. The most effective knowledge transmission channels in EuroClusTex were identified as: imitation, relationship with suppliers, public policy and human resources training. Experiences similar to EuroClusTex can be considered and served as examples for the development of clustering policies in other countries.

El objetivo del trabajo es plantear una agenda de investigación para el estudio de la organización cuyo fin es integrar empresas. Se reflexiona sobre los problemas organizacionales que enfrenta y la forma en que ha sido objeto de estudio en algunos proyectos de investigación mexicanos y españoles. El análisis y la comparación proveen pautas no solo para su estudio sino también para su fortalecimiento y promoción.

The present work consists in the study of the cork business in Portugal during the second half of the «long» XIXth century (1848-1914), having the Alentejo as the concrete geographical space for it. Alentejo is defined as the sum of the current Nomenclatures of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) III that use this designation – Alto Alentejo, Central Alentejo, Alentejo Litoral and Baixo Alentejo. The choice for this regional space is due to its representativeness in the Portuguese cork business, since in the XIXth century it was not only (as it still is) the main cork forest producer, but also where a great part of the cork industry was fixed. Knowing that Portugal nowadays controls all the facets of the cork business – forestry, industry and commerce – but that it did not happen in the nineteenth century, the main objective is to understand, from a detailed analysis of the forest sector, industry and economic policy, if in the Alentejo and, by extension, if in Portugal, the cork business exploited all its potentialities, by comparing it with what was then happening in the Spanish cork sector. In fact, the place that Portugal currently occupies in the cork business was, until the 1930s, occupied by Spain, although it is in Portugal that the cork tree better develops and consequently where there is a greater potential for the production of more and better cork. In order to answer to this problem, this research is based on a multiplicity of sources, both handwritten and printed, produced by private economic agents and public entities, as well as in the bibliography already published on the subject in question, specially about the performance of the Spanish cork industry. The dissertation is structured in six chapters, the first of which is an introductory one and includes the presentation of the theme, the objectives, the existing scientific literature, the sources used and its critique, the geographic and chronological delimitations of the thesis, and the characterization of Alentejo in terms of geography, demography, economy and socially. The second chapter presents a long run vision of the cork business, while the third, fourth and fifth chapters concretize the subject under study, focusing on forest exploitation, industry and economic policy respectively. The last chapter, taking into account the conclusions of each of the previous ones, responds the initial question, concluding that, although the Portuguese cork industry was not benefited from many of the institutional factors that will allow it to rise, as a world leader, in the mid of the twentieth century, in Spain this did not happen either. Thus, the lower economic performance of the Portuguese cork sector was due more to historical issues related to a later start of the sector than to other types of factors.
It is also worth mentioning that, because of the study of the cork business in the eighteenth century Alentejo, other questions were raised and the respective conclusions are presented. Specifically, in forestry, the option for fixed rent contracts as a way of obtaining raw materials and, in the industrial sector, the factors of location and industrial relocation.
Key-words: Cork forest exploration; Cork Industry; XIXth century Alentejo
JEL Codes: N63; N53.

"Economic Linkages between Companies with Foreign Capital and Local Companies in Poland"

The discussion presented in the paper relates to an ongoing debate on the importance of business cooperation between foreign affiliates of transnational corporations and domestic/local companies in host countries. In particular, the paper draws one’s attention to initial conditions, further problems and multifarious aspects, and possible economic effects of such cooperation in the regional or local context. Referring to a survey results we concentrate on the most crucial issues concerning: willingness of companies to foster linkages, types of cooperation undertaken, conditions and requirements for local  companies before starting cooperation, additional areas of cooperation as well as obstacles encountered by companies when developing business relations with local partners. The article deals with some results of a research project – Foreign Direct Investment in Selected Regions of Poland: A Comparative Study – conducted simultaneously in four Polish regions (which are: Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Łódzkie, Warmińsko-Mazurskie, Wielkopolskie) among companies with foreign capital participation and representatives of local authorities.

Keywords: linkages, business cooperation, regional development, foreign direct investment

No século XIX, a região do Alentejo era já a principal zona de produção florestal de cortiça de Portugal e, consequentemente, do planeta. Neste contexto, dezenas de empresas industriais atuaram no mercado florestal de cortiça da região com o objetivo de adquirir matéria-prima, o que poderia ter levado à formação de um mercado altamente concorrencial. No entanto, ao invés de competirem isoladamente, quer as grandes empresas industriais, de carácter multinacional, quer as pequenas empresas, a grande maioria de origem algarvia, utilizaram estratégias de cooperação que lhes permitiram obter vantagens em termos de preços, custos de transação, custos de informação, entre outros. Neste artigo analisam-se essas estratégias, concluindo-se que as mesmas foram um fator de desenvolvimento da indústria corticeira presente no Alentejo.

In the nineteenth century, Alentejo was already the main region for raw cork production of Portugal and, consequently, of the world. In this context, dozens of industrial companies acted in the region's cork forest market with the aim of acquiring raw material, which could have led to the formation of a highly competitive market. However, instead of competing in isolation, both the large multinational industrial companies and the small industrial ones used cooperation strategies that enabled them to obtain advantages in prices, transaction cost, information costs, among others issues. In this article, these strategies are studied, concluding that they acted as a development factor of the cork industry present in the Alentejo.

In the European context, two cross-border regions, the North (Portugal) and Galicia (Spain), play a major role in the textile and clothing industry, although with significant differences in the business strategies they follow. The goal of this study is to evaluate the results of both institutional and entrepreneurial cooperation efforts to bolster cross-border competitiveness in this sector of activity. Methodologically, a quantitative approach is employed, based on the statistical analysis of databases that characterize this business sector, as well as a qualitative approach, based on in-depth interviews, not only with business managers involved in cross-border production networks, but also with the sector’s most representative institutional actors. The results suggest there is an ongoing cross-border clustering process, derived particularly from more intense institutional cooperation. This process requires greater maturity in terms of business relations, as they still seem to be restricted by some cultural barriers associated to the border effect.

According to The Macquarie Dictionary, the word ‘trust’ has more than 20 interpretations in English. Therefore, it is important to specify the way in which the word is being used in any discourses about managerial and economic issues. In what respect and to what extent are economic agents to be trusted in their dealings with others. When economic agents are untrustworthy, this adds to economic transaction costs, reduces the level of economic activity and the achievable level of economic welfare as well as potential gains from growing globalisation. Several adverse economic consequences of lack of business trust are explored along with their consequences for the process of globalisation. Business co-operation and alliances can be important for gaining access to international markets, particularly for small and medium-sized firms. Middle traders can play an important role through their cooperation with smaller producers in enabling their products to be exported. However, suppliers at the bottom of the exchange chain tend to become locked into such cooperative arrangements. This can result in their economic exploitation and growing mistrust of such arrangements. Furthermore, once exploitation by a few middlemen occurs, competitors may be forced to follow their practice. Hence, the bad middlemen drive out the good and cooperative institutional arrangements can be expected to collapse with adverse impacts on economic activity, welfare and exports. Trust is also important in relation to most contracts and the sale of goods. As pointed out by Williamson, most contracts are incomplete and rely for their full execution on some degree of trust or unspecified expectations. There ‘reasonable’ expectations may vary from country to country and this creates a challenge for global transactions. Furthermore, trust problems are important in relation to principal-agent contracts which are invariably incomplete. Global operations of businesses can provide extra scope for agents to engage in deviant behaviour. Sale of goods can also involve distrust. Scope for fraud and misrepresentation of goods can increase when there is considerable distance between the traders as is often the case in global exchanges. This limits the incentive for trade and can result in market failure and a loss of economic welfare. It reduces the potential extent of and benefits from economic globalisation. Measures that can or have been adopted to reduce these problems are outlined.

Reports on and analyses the results from a survey (conducted by Latif Adam) of 210 small or medium-sized garment enterprises in the Municipality of Bandung and the District of Bandung, Indonesia. This survey was intended to identify factors that led SMEs to engage in cooperative interfirm agreements; to identify the influences affecting the duration of such cooperative agreements and to determine the elements which respondents considered to be important for the long-term success of such agreements. In addition; the survey enabled the potential benefits of such agreements to be ranked. Trust was found to be an important consideration in the formation and duration of such agreements and most SMEs saw as the major benefits of such agreements the greater access this enabled them to have to markets. The implications of such cooperation for expanding the involvement of Indonesia’s garment industry in global trade are considered.