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Joint innovation between different organizations or groups has become a common practice for the many companies confronted with major shifts in customers' demand and new technological possibilities. These co-development alliances, however, are typically unstable, and regularly result in drastic restructuring as the partners learn to work together and confront unexpected difficulties. This new and innovative book takes a fresh look at the critical task of managing relationships and communication in co-development alliances. Good relational quality management will certainly not compensate for bad business strategies and poor execution of initiatives. But, at the same time, outstanding relationships will not survive when there is a lack of trust between partners and a desire for tighter control over one another. Francis Bidault presents a new framework for understanding the dynamics of alliances and for managing the relationship between partners at all levels, with practical tools to help successfully develop joint innovation initiatives."

The case study documents the efforts of the equity investor African Development Corporation (ADC) and the African investment Loita Group to acquire shares in Nile Commercial Bank (NCB) of South Sudan in the summer of 2011. South Sudan had just become independent from northern Sudan in July 2011 after decades of civil war. It is one of the poorest countries in the world, but has vast reserves of commodities, mainly oil. On the one hand, NCB in 2011 was bloated with debt and managed badly. Certified data on the bank like P&L statements and balance sheets did not exist until summer 2011 and a due diligence has never been carried out. On the other hand, it is the most powerful banking brand in South Sudan and thus could yield high future profits by participating in the development of the economy and financing the exploration of the oil fields. The central bank, the Bank of South Sudan, has supported NCB since its founding in 2003, but was in 2011 looking for international debt- or equity investors to invest in NCB. The case focuses on ADC’s CEO, Dirk Harbecke, and his negotiations with the central bank. In summer 2011, ADC was an $80 million private equity fund, investing in banking and insurance services in sub-Saharan Africa. It is based in Mauritius. The case discusses whether or not ADC and Loita should invest in NCB when considering risk, return, and ethics as well as how a debt- or equity investment should be structured. The case can be taught in MBA, EMBA, and advanced management programs focusing on market expansion, global strategy, negotiation, and international finance.

The case is set in February 2008. Stefan Tammler, head of the chassis systems control division (CC) of Robert Bosch GmbH (Bosch), has to make a decision about the location for the development of the new anti-lock braking system (ABS) for the low-price vehicle segment (LPV). The case begins with a short introduction outlining the situation. It gives a detailed background on Bosch, especially the chassis systems control division. The main part of the case focuses on the global product development strategy, highlighting especially the two development sites in Suzhou, China; and Yokohama, Japan. Furthermore, the Chinese car market is described in detail, with special emphasis on the LPV segment. The case concludes with Stefan Tammler having to decide where to develop the new ABS system for the LPV segment.

Status-seeking behaviors are linked to executive career progression, but do leaders appreciate being surrounded by followers eager to move up in the organizational hierarchy? Building on the self-enhancement theory, we propose that leaders with high self-assessed getting-ahead behaviors give better performance evaluations to subordinates who also have willingness to get ahead behaviors. In contrast, leaders with low self-assessed getting-ahead behaviors are quite reserved about the performance of subordinates high in the getting-ahead dimension. We also propose that overall, ambitious leaders evaluate more positively their followers’ performance than leaders with more modest desire to get ahead. We suggest that this effect is magnified when the status differential between the leader and the follower is reduced due to differences in age or hierarchical level (i.e., a younger leader or too few hierarchical levels between the leader and the subordinate). The results obtained by using polynomial regression and response surface techniques to analyze a sample of 138 leader-follower dyads supported our hypotheses showing a supervisor’s contextual performance ratings skew rooted in leaders’ desire to get ahead. We conclude by deriving the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.