A strategic framework for firm networks in manufacturing industry: An empirical survey

Firm networking is becoming more and more the most important competitive strength in nowadays competitive environment. Such an evidence is partially neglected by the classical strategic analysis of firms competitiveness which mainly looks at the firm strength and weakness not in relationship with its capacity to build competitive networks. For such a reason, in the last years, many theoretical approaches have stressed the importance of networks to gain competitive advantage. In this paper, the most significant theories on firm networking are reviewed and an innovative strategic framework that mainly underlies at firm networks organisation is proposed. Very briefly, it is argued that networks are differently organised according to three basic strategic objectives: to gain efficiency; to collect knowledge; to pursue globalization. The proposed framework has been tested within the manufacturing industry through an empirical survey conducted on 93 case studies.