26th International Association for Management of Technology Conference - IAMOT 2017

Cooperations are an agreement of two or more organizations, for resources and knowledge sharing, with mutual benefit. Partnerships can also solve complex problems and transfer technology, bringing yield and competitive advantage to firms. However, building and maintaining them is not an easy activity. Therefore, they need to be properly managed, structured and understood. By properly managing partnerships, relational capabilities are developed. They can be understood as creations and combinations of common resources, routines, procedures and policies within and between firms, to manage conflicts, promote trust, transfer knowledge, generate value, achieve improvements, adaptations and / or innovations in interorganizational cooperation. The objective of this research was to analyse the relational capabilities of cooperations for profitable technology’s development. This research was based on Alves, De-Carli and Segatto (2016), and delineated a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory research, with the analysis of five cooperations for profitable technology’s development. Data were collected through a semi-structured questionnaire and in-depth interviews. Data analysis included content analysis for the case description and frequency counting of the factors’ presence in the dimensions and their components. The results demonstrated that twenty-two factors can explain the components and dimensions of relational capabilities in the studied organizations. In coordination dimension, the communication among the partners and the strengthening of the partnerships were highlighted. In cultural dimension, the organizations pointed out the need for partnerships to be formed with organizations with very close values and culture, to generate more results and improve the partnership’s processes. In knowledge dimension, the most cited factor was the adaptation to the partners. But the knowledge’s strategic dependence and the partnerships’ strengthening were also cited as important. In technological dimension, the highlight was the need to avoid losses at partnerships. In addition, it sought to improve processes and strengthen partnerships to achieve better results. Finally, in coadaptation dimension, it had the highest number of cited factors. Among them are the adaptation to the partners looking for common solutions, processes’ improvements and common goals. The research identified which of the twenty-two factors are considered more relevant for the development of component and dimensions of relational capabilities. From this analysis, it was possible to understand how to improve the alliance’s performance, setting effectiveness in partnerships management. Thus, among the management implications, organizations that develop profitable technologies could improve or deepen the influencing factors of partnerships’ success. Thus, they could have successful partnerships, by creating, maintaining and publicizing their work, and guaranteeing faster and more efficiently access to resources. Among the academic implications, it is the greater discussion about: relational capabilities, cooperations and technology development. They have been little discussed and deepened, both individually and collectively. However, this reserch indicated that future studies to assess whether there are differences among the cited factors in different types of cooperation, as well as a more detailed analysis of each dimension of relational capabilities to understand them individually.