Economic Aspects of Inter-Firm Strategic Partnership Agreements

Abstract

The development of the world economy driven largely by the market forces rests on the assumption of imperfect competition between market entities. At the same time, these entities include both government agencies and business enterprises. In order to eliminate the influence of competition on the efficiency of activities, market entities try to limit competition by concluding agreements among themselves on combined effort through various types of unions, alliances and partnerships. In recent years, the development of inter-firm strategic partnerships has been seen at both state (mainly intergovernmental relations) and business levels. For the first time, the agreements under consideration appeared at the intergovernmental level. In international relations, the number of such strategic partnership agreements between governments without details has been increasing substantially. However, we note that at state level, the wording of agreements is broad, general, often shifting mainly towards political aspects, which is not the subject of our consideration. Thus, it seems important to consider the developments in economic aspects of inter-firm agreements. Inter-firm relations in the form of various strategic partnerships represent the economic side of cooperative ties that through various forms of cooperative relations in the sphere of production aim at ensuring the sustainability of global value and supply chains, i.e. inter-firm relations in the field of scientific research, marketing, production, transport and sales.