How the purpose of the inter-firm relationships influences the choice of the governance form: evidence from the machine tool and the pharmaceutical industries

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

In today's competitive landscape, the choice of the appropriate mode to govern an inter-firm relationship is a critical factor for companies. In the literature several theoretical strands have examined the impact of the purpose of inter-firm relationships on the forms of governance. Building on a robust literature review on the topic, this study focuses on a specific issue influencing the choice of the form of governance in inter-firm relationships, i.e. the purpose of inter-firm relationships with relation to partner's resources. We gather in a unique framework three typologies of partner's resources, i.e. production, R&D and marketing, and through two empirical analyses in two different Italian industries, machine tool and pharmaceutical, we show how differently these purposes shape the choice of the governance mode.