Collaborative Improvement: Interplay but Not a Game

Many companies have gradually moved from vertically aligned operations to horizontally aligned operations, a change implying that co-ordination is shifting from the hierarchy to the market place with emphasis on collaboration with other companies. One form of collaboration with companies is so-called Extended Manufacturing Enterprises (EMEs). In effect, the battlefield of competition is increasingly moving from the level of individual firms to that of EMEs. Consequently, new approaches must be developed not only to enhance the business performance of EMEs, but also, in particular, the inter-organisational continuous improvement of their performance, relative to that of other EMEs. Developing a collaborative improvement relationship between companies is a protracted and complex process and, according to some surveys, the failure rate is as low as one to three. This failure rate is affected by a whole range of factors. The research presented in this thesis was aimed at identifying these factors and investigating their interplay and influence on the progress and success of the development of the collaborative improvement. This thesis presents our findings regarding the factors found, their interplay and influence, analyses and discusses the findings against the literature, and reflects upon the findings.