A flagship firm is defined as a multinational enterprise which has taken on the strategic leadership of a business network consisting of four other partners: key suppliers, key customers, selected competitors and the non-business infrastructure. Successful flagship firms need to foster trust and...

This paper uses the D'Cruz/Rugman Five Partners Model1 to show how France Telecom has effectively partnered with suppliers, customers, competitors, and the non-business infrastructure to develop France's telecommunications cluster. The Five Partners Model is a cooperation-based framework for...