Innovation, Competition and Inter-firm Networks : Recent Theoretical Contributions and Analysis of the Main Organizational and Strategic Configurations (Innovation, concurrence et reseaux interfirmes: Apports theoriques recents et analyse des principales configurations organisationnelles et strategiques)

The aim of this article is to attempt to give an account of the diversity of the contemporary configurations of inter-firm relations as they can be observed in many industries, and to stress the structuring role of cooperative arrangements within these configurations. The paper is divided in three parts. The first part focuses on the analysis of the technological, institutional and strategic context within which take place the contemporary forms of inter-firm relations. The second part examines the reasons why the different theoretical approaches of the firm fail to provide a satisfactory analytical articulation of two the notions of competition and cooperation characterising the interactions between firms. Finally, the third part, which represents the core of this paper, is centred on the analysis of the different combinations of inter-firm modalities of interaction within the contemporary competitive dynamics. We first show why cooperation involves a large set of arrangements within a continuum of inter-firm relations which are constantly combining the three logics of more or less intensive rivalry, of integration, and of the search of collective solutions. We then show why the coalitions and networks of firms comprise original and specific forms for the structuring of inter-firm relations. Finally, we show why the formation of coalitions and the networking organisation are phenomena which appear to be consubstantial with the very notion of competition, and therefore deserve a full place in the present renewal of the "Economy of the Firm"