Abstract

"Enhancing Value via Cooperation: Firms' Process Benefits From Participation in a Consortium"

Mu Xia, Kexin Zhao, and Joseph T. Mahoney

First Author :

Mu Xia
Business Administration
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business
1206 S. Sixth Street
189 Wohlers Hall, MC 706
Champaign, IL 61820
USA

217-333-2878

mxia@illinois.edu

http://www.business.uiuc.edu/mxia/

Second Author :

Kexin Zhao
Business Information Systems and Operations Management
Univ. of North Carolina at Charlotte, Belk College of Business
9201 University City Boulevard
Charlotte, NC 28223
USA

704-687-7637

kzhao2@uncc.edu

Third Author :

Joseph T. Mahoney
Business Administration
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business
1206 S. Sixth Street
140C Wohlers Hall, MC 706
Champaign, IL 61820
USA

217-244-8257

josephm@illinois.edu

http://www.business.uiuc.edu/faculty/mahoney.html

Abstract :

Firms benefit from participating in a consortium in two ways: from the final products and from the cooperation process. We define the latter as process benefits, which include both inter-organizational learning benefits and social capital benefits. This paper examines the drivers of these two types of process benefits. Based on 232 surveys collected from seven e-business standard consortia, our empirical findings show that firms expect more process benefits if they are more technically capable, value the final output higher, and participate in a better-managed consortium. Among the three, standard valuation is the most influential factor, indicating that the output benefits and process benefits are highly correlated. Surprisingly, within standard consortia, we also find that relational risk does not have a statistically significant impact on process benefits.

Keywords :

inter-organizational learning, output benefits, process benefits, social capital, standard consortia

Manuscript Received : 2008

Manuscript Published : 2008

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