Inter-Firm Collaboration and Industrial Competitiveness

Abstract

At the high end of manufacturing markets, the end that will create wealth and ultimately jobs, things don’t get made by companies anymore. Things get made, designed, engineered, manufactured, and distributed by groups of firms working together in new, dynamic, and multiple alliances and networks. For firms to be competitive in these markets, there is just too much to learn, too much to be able to do. They can’t do it alone any longer. They have to learn to learn cooperatively.