Building on a business network perspective, the aim of this paper is to present a theoretical view for studying service MNEs in ICT (information communication technology) projects centred on the improvement of public services. The four inter-related concepts of cooperation, legitimacy, commitment and knowledge are applied in the analysis of two projects. Defining the projects as object-based services, the study manifests how service MNEs manage three types of actors (business, politi-cal and social) having their legitimacy in different systems. The cases illustrate cross-border activities where MNEs from Sweden, Spain and China join forces in Brazil with local business, social and political actors and cooperate to strengthen their competitive market position. The study concludes that successful cooperation is partially explained by the management’s ability to incorporate business resources into the needs of the socio-political actors. Furthermore, in object-based services, which are not similar to long-term business relationships, the three involved par-ties advance different types of relationships within a loose network structure. A key implication is that extensive public–private relationships are needed even when MNEs enjoy an established position in a foreign market.

Purpose: Building on a business network perspective, the paper addresses the following question: Why do firms move between cooperation and competition in the context of high-tech industry? Hence, the purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding of the complex cooperation–competition interplay between actors in a business network.

Design/methodology/approach: A single case study within the information and communication technology industry is undertaken and illustrates the cooperation–competition interplay in projects of technology.

Findings: The authors discuss the implications of interdependence on relationship dynamics. The main argument is that business relationships survive despite periods of competition if interdependence is high. Thus, firms move between a state of cooperation and a state of competition within business relationships, rather than ending the relationships when starting to compete.

Practical implications: This study suggests that managers need to pay attention to how different degrees of interdependence lead firms to be embedded in cooperative or competitive forms of relationships.

Originality/value: The paper contributes to the ongoing debate about cooperation, competition and coopetition within international business and industrial marketing literature. An interesting aspect in the paper is the cooperation–competition interplay, which is associated with positioning. A centrally positioned actor will choose who to bring into the partnership, with positioning concomitantly changing from project to project. The willingness of being a central actor, i.e. a project leader, places traditional buyer–supplier partners in competition. Thus, cooperation and/or competition becomes contextual.

International business (IB) is today an established field in business studies with two professional associations and numerous academic publications. However, it is much younger than many other fields in the management area. Although economists were focusing on international issues even before, it was not until after the Second World War that IB started to emerge as a scientific field. The purpose of this paper is to analyse this development from the early days up to the present time. In so doing, using a theoretical framework, it focuses on the organizing of the field, i.e. how early informal contacts eventually led to the formation of formal organizations, the launching of journals, and with the passage of time the publishing of handbooks. The paper provides empirical evidence of all these steps. In this way it presents data on significant contributions to the field.

Extending the business network approach involves the researcher’s reconsideration on what assumptions should be employed when determining what is within the boundaries of the network and what is left outside. Extending also implies that something ‘new’ is presented to the business network. What is considered ‘new’ though depends on what is recognised as established within a research field. This means that ‘new’ is not necessarily novel per se, but represents a ‘new’ direction in extending the business network approach. ‘New’ in that sense is something that provokes the researcher to challenge the assumptions on boundary-setting in the business network approach, and consequently offers alternatives supported by empirical studies or conceptual reasoning. ‘New’ can involve embarking into previously unchartered territories where the business network approach allows for alternative explanations. ‘New’ can also be what the rapid technological development brings, and where the business network approach provides deeper insight into the consequences. Furthermore, ‘new’ can be altered terms for firms and markets where research following the business network approach offers complementary views on business effects.

Contributing pioneering new research, this innovative book proposes new ways and directions in which to extend the influential ‘business networks perspective’ approach to doing business. While previous research has focused upon relationships with customers and suppliers, the authors argue that there is a need to expand the outlook to include other stakeholders. Taking a stand in a broad management perspective, chapters relate contemporary issues within industrial and international marketing, product innovation, and information systems. Challenging existing views and proposing elaborate alternatives; this volume examines a range of examples that have inspired researchers to extend the business network. To provide further understanding, Extending the Business Network Approach relates current and new research to territories, technologies and terms to reveal novel insights, and to encourage further directions for research.

Relationships between commercial actors have existed for thousands of years as highlighted by Hadjikhani and LaPlaca (2013) and Hadjikhani in the final chapter of this volume. However, research on relationships between business actors, often summarised under headings such as industrial marketing or B2B, has a more recent origin. In the words of Hadjikhani and LaPlaca (2013: 294), relationship research ‘existed in society but had little scientific identity or inquiry’. This is even truer for research on wider relationship systems, that is, business networks. However, as will be demonstrated in the present volume, the situation in the beginning of the twenty-first century is quite different. Research on business networks is lively and manifested by a large number of publications. A search for ‘business networks’ in the databases SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI and A&HCI for all years until 2015 (with the restriction that the journals publishing the papers should be classified in the Subject Category ‘Business & Economics’ in all 156 journals) resulted in 553 hits, with the first papers published in 1992. Publications then did not accelerate until the early twenty-first century with an all-time high in 2012 of 70 hits, and somewhat lower figures in the following years. However, it should be noted that the 2015 figures merely refer to the first part of the year (Fig. 2.1) and will increase.