INTERFIEM COLIABORATICN IN THE DEVE]jOPME3Srr OF NEW PRDDUCriCN TECHNCiLOGIES

Existing research suggests that effective interfirm collaboration in the development of new process technologies involves close, dyadic relationships between users and suppliers. Shared goals, common assumptions, and long term i elationships ar^ salient features of the model. This paper develops an alternative, fluid model of interfirm collaboration involving multiple weak linkages among organizations with divergent goals and interests. Important characteristics of the fluid model are multi-stranded network patterns, reconstitutive problem solving processes, and the dominance of politics in interorganizational relations. These characteristics are proposed to be important under turbulent conditions, when technologies are shifting in fundamental ways and manufacturing companies face ill-structured questions and ill-defined environments. Introduction: The Need for Cooperation Between Technology Source and User Evidence is accumulating that cooperation between users and builders of manufacturing equipment and systems is a critical component in successful technology-based competition in the manufacturing sector. Several studies have demonstrated the economic and innovation benefits of sharing information about user needs and solution options during new process development. Von Hippel (1977, 1988) and others (e.g. Shaw, 1985) have demonstrated that the concepts behind successful process equipment innovations frequently originate with leading user firms, who then pass information about needs and even working prototypes to specialized equipment builders. In a study of Japanese semiconductor manufacturers, Mishina (1989) showed that shared knowhow development between competent chip producers and their equipment suppliers benefitted both the producers and the industry as a whole. Cooperation between users and builders of new process equipment has also been shown to contribute to successful implementation of new manufacturing technology in the factory (Tyre and Hauptman, 1989; Leonard-Barton, 1988, Ettlie and Rubenstein, 1980). Further, there are persuasive reasons why cooperative process development efforts will become even more important in the future. These include greater variety and complexity of process technologies, increasing rates of change in many product markets, and the competitive demands of a global arena where major players already use various forms of interfirm cooperation as a significant competitive weapon (Westney, 1988). It is increasingly unlikely that even the most advanced firms in most industries