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In more and more industries it becomes true that value creating networks compete against each other with relatively stable relations between suppliers inside the network. Managers all over the world are searching for the most efficient and effective coordinative forms for their relations with OEM's or suppliers within such a value-creating networks. This paper gives a normative guideline to decide if or if not a partnership is the right coordinative form for OEM-supplier relations within a value-creating network. Based on the existing mainly positivistic research in this field, two aspects are highlighted as the main drivers for the suitability of a partnership as a well working governance mechanism for value-creating networks: (i) individualization vs. standardization of the delivered components combined with the potential of the end customers to identify quality differences or not and (ii) the possibilities to allocate the revenues made by the value-creating network on the several 'partners' within the network. All aspects were integrated in a decision model for managers to find out if partnership as the coordinative form is really the best choice in a given situation.

With permission of Elsevier

The New Europe brings both great expectations and considerable anxiety for organizations and their members. Seen as both an opportunity to develop a powerful economic entity and a danger of diluted national identities and incompatible work practices, it calls for a new type of European leadership. In this article we argue that European organizations face an unprecedented challenge of diversity along the dimensions of culture, language, religion, values, education, political systems, socio-economic experience, and early family and socialization practices. These differences can lead to a plethora of varying and often conflicting preconceptions and attitudes that organizational members bring to work. If the differences are ignored, the development of successful truly European organizations will remain an illusion. To deal with these challenges, executives have to develop a new, "global" approach to leading companies that will combine the features of global and local leadership. This article offers suggestions for corporate executives on how they can develop themselves for the new European leadership roles and successfully deal with the leadership challenges of the New Old World.

With permission of Elsevier

NEGBI is a large company that has telecommunication, coordinated by NEGBI PN, as one of its core competences. NEGBI PN had a strong market position based on supplying its high-quality switch, the complex device that connects senders and receivers in telecommunication networks. Changes over the past 20 years meant that many state-owned companies were privatized, forcing telecom suppliers to develop more competitive products. Technological innovations strongly increased the complexity in the market. These factors created a challenge for billing technology to master highly complex tasks. NEGBI PN decided to enter this market, due to its particularly high growth rates. Selling the systems was directed to local branch offices in 96 countries. Large turnover was expected because of the opportunity to reach potential customers world-wide. The challenge for NEGBI PN was to introduce their billing solutions with a solid marketing strategy.

With permission of Emerald

In the past, transaction cost economics (TCE) literature has largely stressed the benefits of contractual commitments in relationships. TCE traditionally recommends safeguarding specific assets against holdup, thus reducing behavioral uncertainty. In contrast, the reverse side of the coin has been disregarded for a long time. Firms may lose some of their flexibility and thus the opportunity to benefit from future emerging business activities due to prior contractual commitments. Flexibility becomes especially important in dynamic environments where there is rapid technological change. To manage the emergent trade-off between contractual commitments and flexibility in dynamic markets, the authors propose a real options approach. The value of a firm's flexibility to switch to a new trading partner is represented by a real switching option. It can be shown how contractual commitments directly affect the value of the switching option. To clarify, the authors numerically analyze the respective trade-off and derive implications for an optimal choice of contractual commitments.

With permission of Elsevier