Sustainable Solutions for SCM

4.2.5 Case study conclusions It is obvious from the article above that mutual cooperation of two direct rivals resulted in improving their market positions - competitiveness. This cooperation not only contributed to improvement of the positions of the companies Toyota and GM, it also resulted in many positive effects. We can mention, for example: • The increase in the employment rate in the region and improvement of abilities and qualification of the labour force which was reflected in the improvement of the economic standards of the whole region positively. • Cooperation with science and research represented here by the University of Michigan lead, i.e. to the reduction of costs and development of highly qualified labour force etc. • These facts form a specific model situation which is usable also in similar or different situations. Efficient cooperation, based on mutual trust and benefits, leads to an increase in competitiveness of the entities concerned. The above example demonstrates that this is possible even between direct competitors. Companies catch new trends in forming the connections, whether they are joint venture, clusters or fusions. It provides advantages especially in the area of competitiveness for the companies connected this way, which gives them the opportunity to get a greater share on the market and better ability to react on the market demands. Toyota has been developing this cooperation strategy which can be proved, for example, by common production and development within CPT-Citroen – Peugeot – Toyota. 4.3 Case studies literature review – main results overview There exists many scientifically presented case studies concerning cooperation management. We focused on several of them with these criteria: • High significance with the topic of cooperation management. • Decryption of cases where cooperation was crucial for success or competitive advantage. • Recent papers in journals within Scopus and/or science direct databases with respectable relevancy. Crow-Miller et al.: Facilitating collaborative urban water management through university-utility cooperation [2] In the face of intensifying stresses such as climate change, rapid urban population growth, land use change and public concern with rates and use restrictions, water management is becoming increasingly complex in the cities of the American West. One strategy to improve water management practices in this changing social-ecological context is to develop collaborative relationships that facilitate the engagement of multiple stakeholders at multiple scales. At the local level, one important but frequently underdeveloped collaborative link is that between university researchers and water utilities, who together occupy the interstitial space between science and decision- making, while at the same time interfacing with water users.

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