An empirical study of hybrid forms of governance structure: the case of the telecommunication equipment industry

Bernard Garrette (1) , Bertrand Quélin (1)

1 GREGH - Groupement de Recherche et d'Etudes en Gestion à HEC

This article examines hybrid forms of governance structures as defined in transaction cost theory. It demonstrates that these hybrid forms can be split into a small number of discrete categories instead of being distributed evenly on a continuum between market and hierarchy. The analysis is based on a sample of strategic partnerships set up by telecommunication equipment manufacturers, either among themselves or with firms of related industries. The taxonomy of strategic partnerships presented in this paper underlines the importance of the organization of tasks and the symmetry of the contributions of the partner firms as discriminating factors of hybrid forms.

Keywords: Telecommunication equipment industry; Governance

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Business administration; Strategy and business policy

Bernard Garrette, Bertrand Quélin. An empirical study of hybrid forms of governance structure: the case of the telecommunication equipment industry. Research Policy, 1994, Vol. 23, n° 4, pp. 395-412. ⟨10.1016/0048-7333(94)90004-3⟩. ⟨hal-00459471⟩