International industrial marketing interactions: Dyadic and network perspectives

Increasingly, business leaders have come to realize that corporate competit iveness is often contingent on a firm's ability to develop strategic exchan ge relationships and alliances. Because of recent changes in international economic and business environments, nowhere is the need for these relations hips and alliances greater than in the global arena. In this article, the a uthors review and conceptualize the area of international industrial market ing interactions. First, a summary of the costs, benefits, and hazards asso ciated with international industrial alliances is presented. Next, using op en systems theory, the authors discuss the changes taking place in internat ional industrial marketing relationships. Then, the current global business environment is discussed with an emphasis on the additional complexities c reated when firms must interact, not only with other firms and industries, but also with a variety of governmental entities. Finally, these issues are examined in the context of international dyadic and network interactions. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.