Contractual Networks, Inter-firm Cooperation and Economic Growth

This insightful book presents a legal and economic analysis of inter-firm cooperation through networks as an alternative to vertical integration. It examines comparatively various forms of collaboration, ranging from consortia to multiparty joint ventures and from franchising to dealerships. Collaboration among firms of different sizes helps to overcome numerous weaknesses of the modern western industrial systems. It permits the governing of vertical disintegration without increasing fragmentation and transaction costs and allows firms to benefit from resource complementarities, favoring division of labour. The contributing authors, primarily focusing on Europe and the US, address important ways in which legal systems provide a framework for inter-firm coordination. It is clear from the analysis that significant obstacles to collaboration still remain, and the authors call for legal reforms at European and Member States level.