Network Advantage: How to Unlock Value From Your Alliances and Partnerships

Chapter Two

Comparing Network Advantage: Sony versus Samsung

On April 12, 2012, the New York Times ran an article “Sony Revises Expected Loss to $6.4 Billion,” examining the reasons for Sony's poor performance. A few weeks later on April 30, 2012, the New York Times published “Samsung Poised to Leave Rivals Behind,” where it compared Samsung's success with the struggles of many Japanese companies, including Sony. Journalists in the second article partially attributed Samsung's outstanding performance to the superiority of its alliance strategy, especially in dealing with competitors, over Sony's. Other factors contributed, but we agree with their conclusion about alliance strategy and consider this to be a brilliant contemporary example of network ...