How corporations and environmental groups cooperate: Assessing cross-sector alliances and collaborations

Multinational Corporations at the Base of the Economic Pyramid: A Strategic Analysis Framework

“…First, partners in cross-sector alliances are fundamentally different, with different goals, dominant logics, and governance structures (Austin, 2000;Berger, Cunningham, and Drumwright, 2004;Doh and Teegen, 2003;Hardy, Lawrence, and Phillips, 2006;Kanter, 1999;LeBer and Branzei, 2010;Rondinelli and London, 2003;Waddell and Brown, 1997). Second, the objectives of B2N alliances are distinct from those of B2B alliances, as cross-sector alliances typically prioritize the creation of social value over economic value (Alvord, Brown, & Letts, 2004;Berger et al, 2004;LeBer and Branzei, 2010;Nelson and Zadek, 2000;Teegen, et al, 2004;Waddell and Brown, 1997;Waddock, 1991).…”

“…Cross-sector partners tend to share less in terms of organizational culture (Austin, 2000;Berger et al, 2004;Waddell and Brown, 1997), missions (Kanter, 1999;Rondinelli and London, 2003;Waddell and Brown, 1997), views about what constitutes performance and social value (Hardy et al, 2006;LeBer and Branzei, 2010), mindsets and professional language (Austin, 2000;Lucea, 2007), compensation practices (Preston, 1989;Weisbrod, 1983), organizational structures (Berger et al, 2004), governance structures (Doh and Teegen, 2003;Leete, 2000;Rondinelli and London, 2003), and, most importantly, organizational goals (Anheier and Ben-Ner, 2003). As a consequence, B2N alliances exhibit significantly different governance structures and pursue different objectives than B2B alliances both in developed countries (Rivera-Santos and Rufín, In press) and at the BOP (Rivera-Santos and Rufín, 2010).…”

“…In the case of B2N alliances, the fundamental missions and goals of both partners will be different (Kanter, 1999;Rondinelli and London, 2003;Waddell and Brown, 1997). The two partners' intents in regard to who will be the primary beneficiary of learning and subsequent innovation processes will lead to different applications and outcomes of new knowledge.…”

“…-B2B partners are likely to share more in terms of org culture -B2B partners are more likely to share professional language -B2B partners are more likely to share views of what constitutes social value and how to obtain it -B2B partners are more likely to share similar missions at a fundamental level (e.g., profit) -B2N partners are likely to share less in terms of org culture (Austin, 2000;Berger et al, 2004;Waddell and Brown, 1997) -B2N partners are less likely to share professional language (Austin, 2000;Lucea, 2007) -B2N partners are less likely to share views of what constitutes social value and how to obtain it (Hardy et al, 2006;LeBer and Branzei, 2010) -B2N partners are less likely to share similar missions at a fundamental level (e.g., societal) (Kanter, 1999;Rondinelli and London;2003;Waddell and Brown, 1997) Assimilate New External K Similar knowledge processing systems facilitate internalization of new K from external sources (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990).…”

“…-Compensation practices in B2B likely to be more similar -Org structures in B2B more likely to be similar -more formal and more centralized decision making in businesses -Governance practices in B2B likely to be similar -Less psychological hurdles in B2B -More likely to share missions and goals in B2B -Compensation practices in B2N likely to be different (Preston, 1989;Weisbrod, 1983) -Org structure in B2N likely to be different -less formal and less centralized decision making in NPOs (Berger et al, 2004) -Governance practices in B2N will be different (Doh and Teegen, 2003;Leete, 2000;Rondinelli and London, 2003) -More psychological hurdles in B2N (e.g., mistrust, fear, loss of control, misunderstanding of motives) (Rondinelli and London, 2003) -Less likely to share missions and goals in B2N (leads to misunderstandings and interorganizational conflict) (Kanter, 1999;LeBer and Branzei, 2010;Rondinelli and London;2003;Waddell and Brown, 1997) -B2B partners more likely to share professional language.…”