Network-Fit in a Disruptive Environment: Assessment of the Strategic Fit among Partners of a Value-Added Network

Abstract

Disruptive innovations go along with new requirements concerning cost, quality and scalability while the market environment is considered as uncertain and highly dynamic. Many companies form cooperation to acquire competencies and spread the business risk as well as to cope with these new requirements. This leads to new opportunities for value-added networks, as they can be designed to perform best in terms of cost and quality, to handle scalability as well as to define a collective strategy to align the specific goals of network participants. For companies it remains unsure which value-added network to join, which strategic program to initiate and whether the collective strategy of the network fits the corporate strategy of the company. So far there is no methodology that allows network participants to assess the strategic fit towards a value-added network. This paper discusses and addresses the need for action in fit assessment in theory and practice. As a result a methodology to assess the strategic fit of value-added networks is presented. Parts of the strategic fit assessment are: fit in strategic success positions and potentials, structural fit, cultural fit and fit in motives. The electric engine production for electric vehicles is chosen as an example for disruptive innovation and serves as the application case for the methodology of network fit assessment.