Main Problems of Cooperation Management: Insights from Slovak Companies

Abstract

The paper deals with the topic of the cooperation management in the Slovak business environment. We closely investigated the cooperation relations among the companies from 2012 to 2015. The major findings related to problems which impede effective cooperation, creation of synergies, and competitive advantages. As specific problems, we identified inefficient and insufficient cooperation among educational institutions and companies; low quality of supplier-customer relationships; potential risks and issues that may occur later on in cooperation; unsuitable approach to setting goals, tools, and methods for effective cooperation; etc. We also identified main criteria considering the importance for an effective and beneficial cooperation: mutual trust, adherence to contractual requirements, and benefit from the cooperation, which were defined as the best possible result with respect to the expectations about the cooperation. We focus exactly on these criteria in the discussion (among others), where we use them as a basis for the recommendations which will prevent the identified problems.

1. Introduction

We define cooperation management as the “effective and pragmatic management of cooperation relations between independent organizations or individuals for the purpose of raising of their competitiveness” [1]. We have been addressing this topic since 2008. Here, we looked back at the complex research we have been carrying out. Within the data from these surveys, we were able to identify the main problem areas that relate to effective cooperation. This is a point of view from the Slovak Republic, before the “corona” period. The current situation will be affected by the pandemic crisis. Therefore, we considered it necessary to clearly identify these problem areas. It is a comprehensive summary of knowledge and at the same time, a starting point for further research. The main research areas (questions) were:

• The most frequent and the most important areas of cooperation,
• Motives for establishment of the cooperation relationship,
• Criteria for selection of cooperation partners, and
• Strategic elements of the management of ongoing cooperation relations—cooperation strategy.

Managers tend to use basic tools for managing cooperation relationships, but they seldom utilize the whole potential of the cooperation management. The issue of ineffective cooperation management of companies was explored in different types of business areas in the Slovak market. The following four main areas were examined: current cooperation activities, cooperation potential, and internal and external environment of cooperation.

The aim of this paper is to highlight the identified problematic areas of cooperation management and to propose recommendations for their improvement. In order to perform the right changes to the management of current relationships in the cooperation activities of an organization, it is first necessary to properly examine the activities so that any applied changes will be beneficial with respect to the conditions of the continuously changing market environment. The absence of cooperation management in the current environment is risky in the long-term view of remaining active in the market, own performance, and satisfaction of the stakeholders. Failure to recognize the potential of cooperation management can lead to overlooking an important area of management.

We begin our article with an introduction to the problem. We speak briefly about the aim of cooperation management, the problem in the Slovak republic (from the point of the topic), and the methodology of the research. Then, we continue with the results. Here, we introduce the results from the research of the available theoretical sources to the topic and especially the results of our own studies. In the discussion part, we discuss the findings and available information in more detail. We propose possible solutions. The text ends with a clear summary.

Surveys about the effective use of cooperation management among companies and stakeholders enabled us to explore the current state of cooperation management in real life, identify the existing problems in cooperation relationships, and explore potential ways of dealing with them. Based on the findings obtained from the conducted surveys, knowledge and experience of the authors in the field of cooperation management, and successful practical examples identified in the real-life use of cooperation management, it was possible to formulate and propose appropriate recommendations for improving the level of effective management of cooperation relationships. In addition, it is also necessary to consider the already identified criteria and conditions for successful cooperation.

In the context of current managerial activities, it is necessary to focus on the area of managerial thinking innovation. In the current dynamic business environment, the change of managerial thinking is important for the correct understanding and the set of strategic management of cooperation activities and organizational forms. Managers make decisions on how to interact with the companies in the common environment. Considering the current business environment, cooperation management appears to be a suitable approach in how to deal with current globalization trends. The company is able to face multiple challenges of the current global environment through cooperation such as the increasing business risk, focus on low costs, the exploitation of market opportunities and expansion, innovations, product and material development, etc.

The new trend of cooperation can be seen as an effort to maximize efficiency and profits. On the one hand, companies are creating cooperation connections among themselves and on the other hand, they compete with each other, thus creating a competitive environment.

Cooperation and competitiveness of companies at the current interconnected market leads to the invention of new approaches to management. In these new managerial approaches, the emphasis is placed on synergies that represent a new addition to the existing concept of cooperation management. Synergies are central disciplines of the change in perception of the added value which can be created by multiple parties (individuals, companies, groups, organizations, and others). We can create a strong cooperation aspect by interconnecting the strategic management of synergistic effects among cooperating organizations, which represents a tool for achieving the common competitive advantage.

The organization and management of a group of companies needs to achieve its full collaborative potential. What is meant by the full collaborative potential is the satisfaction of the expectations and goals but also opening the door to new opportunities, synergies within the cooperation relationships, and creation of a synergistic effect with expected or unexpected added value.

Theoretical Background of Cooperation and Cooperation Management

Today, cooperation has become one of the key tools for achieving strategic competitiveness of organizations. Cooperation is a complex system whose elements are stakeholders striving to achieve certain benefits that would be difficult to achieve individually [2,3]. As stated by Matuleviciene and Stravinskiene [4], “invoking appropriate dimensions of corporate reputation it is possible to reduce the impact of third parties on stakeholder trust in particular business sector by developing stakeholder trust”. It is a vital necessity to trust each other in the modern market but it is complicated to avoid the interdependence of asymmetry, gaining time, competence, economical/legal market, and other forms as well as to differ in relationship development [5]. There are various forms of organizing cooperation, but generally the most frequently used forms are networks [6,7], clusters, joint ventures, and strategic alliances. There are several preconditions that should be fulfilled for the cooperation to be successful. They include geographical proximity of the partners; sharing a common purpose, values, and objectives; knowledge of the area in which they cooperate; and reaching a consensus [8]. An important aspect is building trust within cooperation and pursuing gradual adaption of the business cultures of the cooperation partners [9]. The benefits of cooperation are less likely to emerge in a short time; they show up after a certain lapse of time [10]. In collaboration games, strategies of the players have the main influence on the final rewards or payoffs [11], so from a long-term perspective it is more profitable to choose cooperation rather than a selfish strategy [12].

An example of such a cooperation strategy approach can be the benefits between sports organizations and sponsors in the competitive advantage. Sports organizations seek funding or services/goods to develop their sports production, whereas sponsors are trying to strengthen the image of their organization and/or brand, foster positive social values, and increase their sales [13,14,15].

The competition–cooperation paradox [16] is a paradox of inter-organizational context, in which firms face the same conditions but some of them are able to cope better by being able to understand and manage the tension generated by the fundamentally opposing forces. Firms vary in their felt tension and internal ability to understand and manage the many contradictions and dualities in coopetition. The authors articulated two important aspects of tension—strain and conflict—that create critical challenges and need to be managed. We further drew a conceptual distinction between the fundamental sources of tension—the contradictions and dualities—and the felt tension experienced by a firm.

Shared Capacity Index is developed according to the suppliers’ capacity share in the corresponding coalition. Suppliers’ collaboration is a new paradigm to improve the utilization of collective intelligence in supply networks. The results demonstrate that long-term cooperation among suppliers leads to enhanced average individual profit in the network [17].

The new Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma (IPD) model according to authors Zeng, Li, and Chen [18] of multiple agents, is that in which agents interact with one another in the pair-wise IPD game while adapting their risk attitudes according to their received payoffs. The results indicate that mutual cooperation is possible when agents focus on historical comparison to adapt their risk attitudes but fails with a strong presence of social comparison.

Cooperation needs to be properly managed in order to be successful. Cooperation management has already become a topic of interest not only for businesses but also for politicians, regions, and various research organizations including universities. The main reason for this is the changing perspective on the role of research and development (R&D), which is supporting the economic growth of the country or individual regions. There are several definitions of the term cooperation management. It is a “philosophy of management that can be applied irrespective of ownership structure” [19]; it represents “effective and efficient management of relationships in cooperation between separate and relatively independent organizations or individuals, with the goal of improving their competitiveness” [20]. Creating cooperation connections allows the spreading of innovative activities and helps to increase the global competitiveness of the participating organizations, because globalization suggests that internal efficiency is not enough to achieve international competitiveness [3,21].

According to the various empirical studies, there are often confirmed positive linkages among trade openness, economic growth, and competition indicators [22].

A summary of the strategic decisions based on which strategic cooperation management is performed and managed is called a cooperation strategy. The creation of a cooperation strategy should take into account two key questions: what does the cooperating group want to achieve and how should be the partners involved in the cooperation activities [20].

Simultaneous cooperation and competition between companies is called coopetition. Today’s dynamic and complex business contexts have, to a large extent, shifted the former focus on internal resources [23,24] to the ability to integrate external resources through networking [25,26,27]. Studies on coopetition within business networks include both formal and informal cooperation among competitors [28,29,30]. Companies in different industries are involved in a wide range of cooperation activities from R&D to production and distribution [31]. A large body of literature in the management domain has been produced that discusses various motives that incite firms to collaborate on R&D [32,33]. The findings suggest that cooperation is induced by knowledge spillovers and in turn leads to higher R&D investment levels [34]. Distinguishing more specifically between partnerships with competitors, suppliers, customers, universities, and research institutes, cooperation with suppliers and competitors has a significant impact on labor productivity growth, while cooperation with customers and universities or research institutes positively affects growth in sales per employee of products and services new to the market [35]. Cooperation with universities is more likely to be chosen by more R&D intensive firms in sectors that exhibit faster technological and product developments [36].

The essence of cooperation is more effective and efficient combination of resources in areas such as supply, production, sales, finance, science, and research. Cooperation enables different organizations to support each other by leveraging, combining, and capitalizing on their complementary strengths and capabilities [36,37]. However, cooperation requires relationships, procedures, and structures that are quite different from the ways most organizations worked in the past. Building an effective partnership may often be time-consuming, resource-intensive, and very difficult [38,39].

Successful cooperation alliances are highly evolutionary and have gone through a sequence of interactive cycles of learning, reevaluation, and readjustment. In contrast, failing cooperation alliances are highly inertial, with little learning, divergent learning between cognitive understanding and behavioral adjustment, or frustrated expectations [40]. Sustainable cooperation is based on effective management, adaptation, and maintaining the trust and loyalty of cooperating members [41]. Proactivity is also seen as a key factor. Organizations belonging to strategic alliances can create value by learning how to successfully manage these strategic alliances. When a company’s alliance management skills are superior to those of competitors, they gain a competitive advantage [42]. In case of horizontal or vertical relationships between two or more actors involving both cooperation and competitive interactions, performance is a crucial factor. Human resource management plays a major role, as it must be able to use knowledge, creativity, analytical thinking, and appropriate proposals to directly manage individual performance, overall performance, and competitiveness of the whole company [43].

The importance of synergies in cooperation relationships needs to be emphasized. The objectives based on cooperation cannot be achieved by a single person, organization, or sector. Instead, they are based on the synergies that form a new system. This system is affected by economic and technological changes and is becoming more competitive and specific within the current dynamically changing conditions [44]. Synergy is considered an effect of interaction and cooperation between organizations which has resulted in the creation of additional value [45].

Synergy represents one of the approaches used in cooperation environment. A synergistic effect also needs to be properly managed while creating cooperation relationships between organizations. Managers need to understand and set processes in organizations in a way that supports creation of synergistic effects. By creating cooperation relations based on synergy, cooperation can reach long-term sustainability and result in the successful performance of the involved companies on the market.

A similar point of view about cooperation case research is shared by Lydeka and Adomavičius [46]. They claimed that their research “confirms that difficulties in creating successful alliances in part can be attributed to differences between three strategic viewpoints that dominate world of business strategy: (1) Competitive paradigm; (2) Cooperation paradigm; (3) Syncretic paradigm”.

2. Materials and Methods

The focus of our study was the general attitude in the market towards cooperation and then a focus on the status of cooperation management in selected companies in the Slovak market. The research was conducted in 2012–2015. This was quantitative as well as qualitative research where we collected primary data through the realized questionnaire surveys, semi-structured interviews, observations, and by content analysis [47,48,49]:

• In 2012: questionnaire survey among 274 companies, quantitative research.
• In 2013: questionnaire survey among 272 companies, quantitative research.
• In 2014: semi-structured interviews, observations, content analysis of documents in 7 companies, qualitative research.
• In 2015: questionnaire survey among 134 companies, quantitative research [50].

Secondary data were collected through the analysis of the business environment of the companies as well as through the analysis of the individual environment of the companies, e.g., from their web pages, annual reports, catalogues, and press releases.

The abovementioned research undertakings had a complex character. For the purpose of this paper, here we only focus on the parts related to cooperation management. The main methods used in the preparation of this paper were as follows.

Content analysis was used for the identification of information related to the challenges associated with the use of cooperation management.

Induction and deduction were used to prepare discussion and to formulate recommendations.

Generalization and logical argumentation were used to create general areas based on the results of the research, to prepare discussion, and to formulate recommendations.

A qualitative approach to the research was used to evaluate the accumulated data with respect to the studied topic, i.e., main problems associated with cooperation management.

Within each of the four introduced research areas, we focused only on the information illustrating the problems relating to the complex system of the cooperation management. From the methodological point of view, it was a content analysis. The sought signs were the questions obviously relating to problem areas and subsequently the answers of course. We proceeded similarly by the analysis of the data from the qualitative research from 2014. We introduce here an overview of areas which we took into account in a detailed analysis:

• The most frequent and the most important areas of cooperation,
• Motives for the establishment of the cooperation relationship,
• Criteria for the selection of cooperation partners, and
• Strategic elements of the management of ongoing cooperation relations—cooperation strategy.

All of these areas were partially covered by our previous surveys as single questions or sections, but these surveys alone did not give us a comprehensive result. Considering data from each survey together, we obtain sufficient information. Therefore, we focused our effort on interpretation of our data within the abovementioned areas of interest.

Surveys in the Business Environment of the Slovak Republic Conducted from 2012 to 2015

The main results of our research in the area of effective use of cooperation management by companies and other relevant parties were generated as part of a chronological research and were split into four groups:

(1)

Results of the survey conducted in 2012;

(2)

Results of the survey conducted in 2013;

(3)

Results of the survey conducted in 2014;

(4)

Results of the survey conducted in 2015.

These results represent the key findings related to the studied topic of cooperation management and its problems in the context of the Slovak market. The overall results of the research confirmed the following assumptions:

• The main motivation for engaging in cooperation is generated by the development and growth of the company, increased competitiveness, and growing attractiveness of the company.
• At present, the degree of interaction between companies, either cooperating or competing, is relatively high. However, there is still some room for improvement in the cooperation between the companies. The research has confirmed that in order to make the cooperation more effective, companies need to create and adhere to certain strategic managerial steps.

In 2012, the main problem identified by our survey conducted was the inefficient and insufficient cooperation among educational institutions and companies in the Žilina region in Slovakia. The results of the survey represent findings in the area of business environment and are based on a sample of companies with more than 20 employees active in the Slovak market in the year 2012. The method of the research was evaluation of the results of the sociologic inquiry through a questionnaire distributed among 274 companies. These results represent introductory findings related to the topic of problems of cooperation management in the Slovak business environment.

In 2013, the main problem identified in the survey was the absence of quality cooperation (cooperation and quality of supplier-customer relationships). Results of the survey are based on a sample of companies with over 20 employees (70%) active in the Slovak business environment in the year 2013. Companies had been active in the Slovak market for 10–19 years on average. The method of research was to evaluate the survey results of the questionnaire inquiry among 272 companies.

In 2014, we conducted semi-structured interviews, observations, and a content analysis of documents in seven Slovak companies:

• Ipesoft spol. s.r.o. (est. 1993)
• ContiTech Vibration Control Slovakia, s.r.o. (est. 2002)
• IMAO electric, s.r.o. (est. 2008)
• PHA Slovakia s.r.o. (est. 2005)
• Schaeffler Slovensko, spol. s r.o. (est. 1999, according to the business register in 2013)
• ZOS Zvolen s.r.o (est. 1995)
• PD Liskova (est. 1991)

The organizations included in this year’s research are characterized by their long history of being active on the Slovak market. Examples are the agricultural organization PD Liskova which has been active on the Slovak market since 1991, or the electronic material company IMAO, active since 2008. Business activities of the included companies often exceed national borders and they are also active in other countries of central and eastern Europe. The business of the companies included in the survey focus on the production of software, electronic material, automotive and rail technologies, and agricultural production. Companies belong to the category of medium and large enterprises with the number of employees being between 50 and 4000. The most frequent enterprise form is a limited liability company (s.r.o.) with company place of business in the Žilina region of Slovakia.

In 2015, the main problem identified by the research performed was an inefficient cooperation environment. The survey was realized with a sample of medium and large companies, with more than 100–150 employees that were active in the Slovak market in 2015. In the survey, we evaluated the results of a questionnaire inquiry among 138 companies. The aim was to explore the current situation with respect to collaborations in larger organizations.

3. Results

As mentioned above, we conducted research in the area of cooperation management and identified two main problems related to the use of cooperation management, which we also discuss in this paper. We present the highlights of the results generated through our research of cooperation management.

3.1. Problems of Collaborations in the Business Environment in the Slovak Republic Identified in the Research from 2012–2015

Problem areas A–E were set as interpretation of data and findings from the 2012–2015 surveys. Firstly, they were determined based on the significance of individual cooperation factors according to theoretical sources, and secondly, as generalized interpretation of the results of our empirical research (

Table 1. Areas of cooperation problems.

Area of Cooperation Problem		Brief Description
A	Suitability of the cooperation partner	This problematic area refers to the topic of the characteristics and initial criteria that should be present for the cooperation to start.
B	Specific areas of cooperation	One of the problems associated with current cooperation relationships is the specific definition of the needs of cooperation. These are narrowly focused on what the companies must achieve rather than on what could be beneficial for them in the cooperation environment in the future.
C	Results of cooperation	The results of cooperation may often be problematic for both the new and the experienced cooperating partners. They are considered the end value or a situation defining the convenience of the cooperation, i.e., evaluation of the future potential of cooperation at the beginning of the relationship. The present, or final, condition of cooperation also needs to be evaluated and decisions need to be made regarding the future of the relationship.
D	Effective and useful cooperation	How to establish cooperation that would be effective and beneficial for its actors and would enable them to achieve their common goals through the strategic management and in line with the defined common strategy?
E	Problems of cooperation from the perspective of the subject	Specific problems considering cooperation and cooperation management stated within all involved surveys.

).

[A]

Suitability of the Cooperation Partner

This problematic area refers to the topic of the characteristics and initial criteria that should be present for the cooperation to start.

These were the key findings for the year 2012:

• In a sample of 95 companies, 86% of companies cooperated and had established cooperation relationships. The most frequent enterprise form used by these companies was a limited liability company, followed by a joint-stock company in a ratio 2/3 to the other forms of business. This was also confirmed in the years 2013 and 2015.
• When selecting a cooperation partner, companies put emphasis mainly on the potential future results in the common realization of the defined goals. One of the most important criteria for cooperation establishment was the identification of suitable tools and methods to control the relationship.

In 2013, the importance of competitiveness and of strengthening one’s own position and economic performance on the market increased. Companies claimed that a better market standing is enabled by the creation of new and the improvement of old partner relationships. This was also supported by the findings regarding the intensity of cooperation:

• 90% of companies had existing cooperation relationships with other companies,
• 48% of companies aimed to establish a cooperation relationship soon, and
• 46% of companies planned to maintain or replicate their cooperation relationships, with respect to the most important partners.

Among other important factors identified by the companies as beneficial for their competitiveness, there were profitability and solvency (ability to respect and pay their financial liabilities). These factors, as well as the reputation and references of the companies, represent an essential prerequisite for the creation of cooperation relationships.

According to the findings of the qualitative research included in the case studies carried out in the companies in 2014, there are three main complicating factors in the process of creating cooperation:

(1)

How demanding the cooperation is regarding the costs, time, and resources that need to be invested. These were considered not only with regard to the initial costs, but also to potential risks and problems and their solving.

(2)

Inappropriate approach to goal-setting, and consequently to strategy creation for the cooperation, e.g., incorrectly identified common goals of the parties, resulting in disagreements due to different initial expectations about the cooperation relationship (i.e., what is the cooperation expected to achieve, what needs to be done).

(3)

Inefficient setting of the conditions of the cooperation, particularly with respect to time and formal specifications and fulfilment of the agreed activities towards the common goal of the cooperation. Lack of adherence to the specified requirements of the collaboration was also identified by the companies.

In the 2015 survey, we found that the company size does not affect the cooperation, i.e., the size of the company does not influence its interest in cooperation. Moreover, the findings from the previous surveys regarding the importance of evaluation and careful selection of future partners were confirmed. Some new factors considered by the companies while evaluating their potential partners were added to the list, e.g., time of being active in the industry and potential for creation of a long-term cooperation—important for the stability and security of relationships. Accuracy of the conditions of cooperation set out prior to its start was declared by the companies as the key factor for ensuring successful cooperation.

[B]

Specific Areas of Cooperation

One of the problems associated with current cooperation relationships is the specific definition of the needs of cooperation. These are narrowly focused on what the companies must achieve rather than on what could be beneficial for them in the cooperation environment in the future. In respective years of our research, the following main areas of interest were identified:

• 2012: Sharing a part of the company’s know-how; training of employees; cooperation on specific practical business projects; cooperation in providing professional practical experience to potential employees (cooperation with educational institutions).
• 2013: Focus on technological and industrial cooperation followed by cooperation in supplier–customer relationships.
• 2014: Orientation of cooperation towards the future of the companies. However, identification of a suitable cooperation partner from the large number of companies active in the industry was identified as a major challenge. Companies focused more on the areas where cooperation already existed. Our findings revealed the increasingly problematic cooperation partners, who were not on the required level to be able to fulfil goals of the cooperation and were frequently described as unreliable and unprofessional in performing their roles in the cooperation.
• 2015: Companies’ intensive search for big cooperation partners (mostly around suppliers) especially due to the increasing number of clients (motivation for cooperation: shared customers). In addition, the degree of involvement of educational institutions was investigated. According to our findings, the companies focused primarily on cooperation with other companies and only secondarily with educational institutions.

[C]

Results of Cooperation

The results of cooperation may often be problematic for both new and experienced cooperating partners. They are considered the end value or a situation defining the convenience of the cooperation, i.e., evaluation the future potential of cooperation at the beginning of the relationship. The present, or final, condition of cooperation also needs to be evaluated and decisions need to be made regarding the future of the relationship. Based on our research, we selected the following aspects supporting the abovementioned claims:

• 2012: On the one hand, companies expect from the cooperation an increase of knowledge and skills. On the other hand, they also expect an increase in competitiveness and performance.
• 2013: The findings from the previous year were confirmed. In 2013, the degree of satisfaction with cooperation among the companies was at the level of 80–90%.
• 2014: Companies started to point out the increasing importance of opportunities and challenges of the current international environment, in which cooperation plays a major role.
• 2015: An increasing number of companies started to evaluate the potential of their existing and future cooperation relationships. The key criteria for their evaluations were profit, costs, effectiveness and usefulness of the cooperation relationship, competitiveness, development and growth, and market position (positive image of the company).

[D]

Effective and useful cooperation

How to establish cooperation that would be effective and beneficial for its actors and would enable them to achieve their common goals through the strategic management and in line with the defined common strategy? The following points represent findings from our research on this topic:

2012: The findings from our research revealed the relation between the effectiveness and efficiency of the cooperation and the companies’ approach depending on how serious and long-term the company’s past cooperations were.

2013: In this research, companies identified the following criteria as important for an effective and beneficial cooperation: mutual trust, adherence to contractual requirements, and benefit from the cooperation, which was defined as the best possible result with respect to the expectations about the cooperation.

2014: Findings from this year are based on the qualitative research carried out in seven participating companies where we explored the current state of cooperation management in the Slovak business environment. In this research, the following key criteria with an impact on effectiveness and the degree of benefit from the cooperation were identified:

• Trust in the cooperation partner (before—reputation, during—status, after—experience). Lack of trust results in unwillingness to engage in common activities and cooperation itself.
• Workload and lack of time of the management involved in the cooperation.
• Mutual communication and exchange of information. Potential issues: communication between partners, unwillingness to share information, lack of feedback.
• Effective involvement in the cooperation through available and vital resources. Potential issues: results of cooperation do not correspond to the effort and resources that were put into the relationship.

2015: Findings from this year confirmed the findings from previous years. The criteria that were identified as the most important for effective and beneficial cooperation were mutual trust and adherence to contractual requirements. Companies with considerable experience in cooperation in their environment started to place more emphasis on the strategic perspectives of the cooperation as well, specifically: concrete definition of cooperation goals, setting and definition of cooperation rules, anticipation and solving of problems at an early stage.

[E]

Problems of Cooperation from the Perspective of the Subject

The following problems were most frequently named by the companies. In 2012, it was financial resources and the lack of time of the company management. In 2013, it was insufficient fulfillment of contractual requirements of cooperation, misinformation, and financial demands. In 2014, effectivity and efficiency of the existing cooperation relationship with regard to the goals and funding and financial demands were highlighted. Finally, in 2015, companies mentioned perception of cooperation as an additional redundant and bureaucratic tool for management; insufficient mutual communication between the partners; unclear benefits of cooperation; incorrect management of cooperation; political situation; development of conflict situations; and competition on foreign markets.

4. Discussion

In the discussion, we simply outline answers for problems identified in our research. The first part briefly answers identified problems from the previous section. This is then expanded and explained in more detail in following parts.

[A]

Suitability of the cooperation partner:

The partner must be capable of managing matters in cooperation effectively and in reality. That means having an interest, actual capacities, and knowledge. The partner is willing to and capable of collectively create the cooperation strategy and implementing it in a managerial way.

Partners must set cooperation conditions as precisely as possible. They must mutually speak about conditions with complete frankness and unequivocally understand them.

Possible problems (ad hoc), which will certainly occur, when talking about social systems, must be willingly and explicitly solved.

Experience and reference power of partners are factors having a positive impact on effective cooperation.

[B]

Specific areas of cooperation:

Concrete cooperation takes place in specific contexts (e.g., development of new product, European project schemes, etc.). This means that new or relatively new situations for partners often come when they do not have sufficient experience. That is why before and during the cooperation projects, it is necessary to consider the possibility of increasing qualification and/or awareness of human resources which will participate in the projects. This does not have to be through formalized training or courses; better solutions are often internships, educational stays, or rather time concentrated on detailed studies of the issue.

Understanding of partners is important for successful cooperation in the same way as understanding collective aims. It is about taking advantage of their strong points, experience, and infrastructure, among others. It all works in the sense of the synergy effect idea that is to get acquainted with the environment, technology, know-how, and employees of partners in more detail, which can represent an important benefit for cooperation projects.

[C]

Results of a cooperation

Results of cooperation concern various angles: 1. expected results, 2. past results (if they were also in the form of experience), and 3. actual results, which are being or were gained. A fundamental tool is managerial logic in the form of the concept of setting targets as S.M.A.R.T. This should especially relate to expected results—understanding of them in a strategic managerial sense. Past results are the base of experience, which is good to use for other cooperation projects. Results reality is reusable and it can be analyzed by means of standard managerial methods (e.g., A/B analysis, SWOT, benchmarking, environment analysis, etc.). What is specific and what is important to take in consideration when setting the targets of cooperation connections is: (a) the present condition of internal environment by individual partners (e.g., financial situation, staffing, accessible infrastructure, etc.); (b) common values between partners; (c) market situation in the field where they are going to cooperate (trends, development, competitive environment); and (d) next available partners or financial means which can participate on set cooperation. According to the cluster principle [1], these are most often universities, researchers, banks, consultancy companies, provincial government, and others. In other words, organizations or eminent individuals who can significantly help the given cooperation—it is understood that it is also in their interest.

[D]

Effective and useful cooperation and Problems of cooperation from the perspective of the subject

For the cooperation to be effective and useful, it is basically necessary to know and understand partners and the problems being dealt through cooperation. That is the basic solution. It follows again, as it was in the previous case, as the application of managerial approaches. Problems in cooperation relationships always come on because it is a social system consisting of people. Its integral natural parts are conflicts. Problems occur between partners and on the market—out of the cooperation environment. Basically, the specifics are the same as in the previous case C. The other aspects are handled in the following part of the discussion.

4.1. Areas for Successful Cooperation

Based on our research, we identified the main areas crucial for successful cooperation between companies. Those key areas tend to act against the identified problems, assuming that they are applied correctly and in a positive way. These are generalized aspects on a conceptual level, based on our research and experience with the topic. The listed areas are a subject of a discussion:

Resources. Combination of resources while respecting a win-win strategy, as well as a balance between the inputs of the members of cooperation; this represents a fundamental factor for sustaining the current stage and future of cooperation. On the other hand, in the case of misuse of resources and one-sided benefits (parasite, lack of involvement in a cooperation), the cooperation brings different results that those desired, often being insufficient and even negative. Insufficient results with respect to the dedicated resources signify the end of cooperation. On the other hand, in case of usage of the right number of resources that are effective and with beneficial effect, the cooperation has a higher probability of success. This leads to the conclusion that the cooperation approach or strategy enables the participating organizations to access opportunities that they would not be able to address alone or only with difficulties. Pooling of resources represents a significant competitive advantage with a potentially synergic effect.

Difficulty. In this case, it is a combination of four elements:

(1)

Time: scheduling within the contractual relationships (plan/reality).

(2)

Human resources: management of human resources in a cooperation.

(3)

Costs: resources invested into the cooperation. The following three elements have an impact on cooperation in a sense of its development and results. Because the topic of cooperation management is significantly complex, it is possible to add the additional fourth element reflecting the overall complexity.

(4)

Change in behavior: This change may make the ongoing cooperation complicated, either as an expected or unexpected factor. As an expected factor, it appears in cases of fraudulent behavior or a lack of adherence to the agreed requirements and goals of cooperation. As an unexpected factor, it appears in cases of a change in external environment within which the subjects act and which has a direct impact on their decision making—it is a dramatic change in the situation and decisions.

Overall difficulty should be properly evaluated prior to the start of the cooperation. The difficulty should be sufficiently explored and identified before the partners decide to enter the cooperation. Such identification will contribute to better and more precise decision making (setting of realistic goals, division of tasks, etc.), while insufficient identification of cooperation difficulty may lead to overestimation of the partners’ abilities to achieve the goals.

Purpose. Lack of consensus in the purpose, goals, and visions of the companies in cooperation may significantly hinder the relationship right from its beginning. By incorrectly setting goals of the cooperation, there will also be an unsuitable strategy to achieve them and the lack of activities to fulfil the vision of the cooperation. This means that the partners (or potential partners) need to have clarity and unambiguous understanding of the goals of all participants. It is particularly due to an overlap in common goals or even a unity in common goals that it is possible to develop and grow the cooperation. It is also necessary to take into an account the factor that the goals of individual partners are not static but may dynamically change. Cooperation should reflect this (e.g., change in organizational structure, new partners, new re-evaluated goals, etc.).

Requirements. The requirements in cooperation represent certain barriers and limits in this relationship with respect to what is correct or proper. The cooperating parties know how they should act in this relationship. Such requirements can be defined in a contract, where this will create a tool for suppressing the detrimental behavior of certain parties in case they directly negatively impact the cooperation (formal requirements of cooperation). In addition, in each cooperation, informal requirements also exist, which are to a large extent within the tolerance of the other partners. This often includes altruistically supplied or performed activities, processes, help, information, etc. Formal as well as informal requirements (barriers, limits) represent a basis for a resilient partnership (cooperation relationship). From our perspective, a key role here is played by the serious approach of the participating parties: Will they be willing to adhere to the requirements of the cooperation? Will they be willing to accept sanctions in case of the lack of adherence?

Key employees. The identified issues in this category include time needed for the cooperation process (start, cooperation, termination) and insufficient awareness of the key managerial employees (know-how from the perspective of the tools, approaches, and forms of cooperation). An important step in the change of thinking, within cooperation and cooperation management, represents the creation of a cooperation unit. This is about separating the managerial unit (manager or a group of managers—unit) which will be focused and specialized on the cooperation activities. It will manage such activities, coordinate, and partially also plan and bear certain responsibility for the achieved goals. Specific importance should be placed on the human factor and specifically the skills, knowledge, and experience of the involved managers. These people should be selected and developed so that they can fit in the best way with the cooperation goals. It is important to realize that this is indeed a complex and demanding task.

Communication. With respect to communication, we should take into an account the exchange of information, which should occur in both directions. It needs to involve all partners—of course, depending on the degree of mutual cooperation. For example, more sensitive information is shared only by the main partners, others receive only selected information, etc. The most frequent and key problems in this category are sharing of information (purpose, benefit, reason, sensitive information); feedback (mutual); and inefficient communication in the cooperation relationship. Current technologies and the availability of information and communication technologies offer unprecedented possibilities to collect, process, and work with information, including its sharing, exchange, and feedback. This represents a significant potential for improvement of communication processes, as well as for reduction of communication barriers in a cooperation relationship. Communication is again a particularly complex area and its impact on success/effectiveness or alternatively failure/inefficiency of the cooperation is significant.

Trust. Mutual trust between cooperating partners influences the whole process of the cooperation relationship (start, cooperation, termination). Building of trust between the partners is a process influenced by several major aspects, in particular:

• Experience—Does a positive experience exist regarding the previous cooperation with this partner? If yes, then the tendency to trust each other in the cooperation will be relatively higher. The process of building a positive experience is relatively long. Our research shows that this factor is particularly important and positive. A positive experience means that the partners already achieved something together and overcame certain challenges. This also has an impact on the following factor.
• The power of reference—Successful and strong organizations tend to be preferred as partners in cooperation relationships. This, however, does not apply without limitation due to the fact, that cooperation strategy can be used as an important factor of competitive effort against dominant organizations on the market.

We identified the following main problems in the area of trust in the process of creation of a cooperation relationship:

(a)

Unwillingness to participate in common cooperation activities,

(b)

Limited knowledge about cooperation (what it represents, what forms does it have, what is it able to bring—advantages of a cooperation), and

(c)

Trust is not mutual. Cooperation partners do not perceive the distribution of benefits as fair. Experience from cooperation has not led to the building of mutual trust.

As long as a considerable unwillingness and reluctance towards the cooperation exists within the internal environment of the organization, this may potentially lead to a change in trust in their management. For this reason, it is necessary for the management to take steps towards the reduction of mistrust in cooperation activities if the management considers them to be important and beneficial. Through these interactions between companies, we build individual trust in each member of the cooperation environment.

4.2. Ex Post Problems

In the following part, we consider a situation in which, based on the agreed goals, prepared strategies, and defined requirements, the partners start to cooperate; however, the situation in the cooperation relationship does not correspond to these goals (expected development and results of a cooperation). We found that these problems frequently occur in these situations:

• Too long time for a delivery (of a product, service, goods etc.),
• Lack of adherence to the delivery timelines,
• Hidden additional costs after the delivery of goods (services),
• Issues with a claim for replacement,
• Agreed price increasing,
• Lack of produced components quality, high error rate,
• Delivery of low-quality components,
• Delivery of incorrect goods,
• Damage to the components during the transport, and
• Insufficient maintenance of machines and equipment.

Based on the findings mentioned above, it is necessary that the capabilities of crisis management also be present in the cooperation. This capability should be able to predict potential problems, identify them, and, most importantly, deal with them in a way that will not put the existing cooperation at risk. It is important to focus on the adherence of contractual requirements, support of cooperation, and serious approach for dealing with issues and for proposing solutions—willingness to solve the problems. Based on our research, it appears that some problems will always occur in cooperation relationships. In such cases, the problems are a normal and integral element of cooperation relationships. For this reason, companies should be ready to deal with these problems—crisis management. In practice, it also depends on the intensity of the problem and whether the problem that materialized between the partners was caused by an external entity or market development. In essence, as long as there is an interest and willingness to cooperate between the partners, the interest and ability to deal with the issues will be also high. The reverse is, of course, also true. Problems in cooperation relationships contribute to better definition and growth of the partners—new knowledge is generated about new solutions and effective approaches. With respect to the intensity of problems, it could be so significant that it will result in a disintegration of the cooperation, e.g., significant lack of professional and serious attitude of a partner to the cooperation (internal problem), significant change on the market, opportunity or threat, and growth or decline (external problem).

4.3. Globalization and External Environment

Partners should expect that changes and challenges will occur, especially in the context of a global and international environment, as opposed to the occurrences happening only on the local market. Each type of cooperation should accept the external changes in the environment and integrate them in a suitable and necessary way into the cooperation as well. Here we point towards an interconnectedness and interaction between external and internal environment which mutually affect and develop each other. We can observe some sort of synergic effect where there is mutual influence and creation of new levels of evolutions in cooperation between the partners. A slow rate of accepting changes from the global environment represents a risk factor which tends to influence the cooperation relationship in a negative way. The opposite situation represents quick reaction to opportunities and threats arising from the global environment. In particular, the dynamics of cooperation relationships may provide significant flexibility in reactions; for example, the creation of an alliance to utilize a major market opportunity for the reason that companies individually would not have sufficient capabilities to be competitive. The opposite situation—termination of a cooperation because there is no longer a market justification for its existence—could possibly be a competitive advantage as the companies can now focus their resources on the current market situation and potential competitive advantages.

4.4. Suitable Tools and Methods

Within the research from 2012, the respondents claimed a significant lack of suitable tools and methods to control the cooperation relationship. We can see a range of methodological tools available for usage in this matter. First, the most important one is to adjust the whole system for supporting effective and dynamic cooperation. We can use, for example, the main necessary adjustments of the main function of management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling [51]. Now, we focus on a brief description of their specific uses for cooperation management problem solving. Planning should focus on both cooperation facilitation (before its establishment) and planning in a dynamic market environment. Organizing should incorporate the idea of dynamic cooperation, based on organization structures, e.g., strategic alliances, joint ventures, clusters, etc. Leading should distinguish between the role of facilitator and cooperation management. Facilitator is a specific management role focused strictly on activities for the establishment of single cooperation. Management of cooperation should be able to serve the specific goals of a new cooperation-based entity on the market. Controlling should also incorporate the dynamic nature of the case and focus mainly on following: main goals and demands of stakeholders; main cooperation processes; dynamic of organization structure (Are they set properly, according to the main goals and reality on the market?); etc. Another method that is possible to use for strategy planning and management (within cooperation management) is stakeholders management matrix [51]. This matrix consists of four main situations which represents a ground base for strategical planning and decision-making processes. To be brief, when this tool is properly used, it can tell us if we, considering cooperation, should be focused on (a) just monitoring the environment, (b) managing the stakeholders, (c) building and developing close partnerships, or (d) finding new potential on an uncertain market. We consider this method very beneficial and easy to use. Another possible method is the case study approach. We consider this approach beneficial in many ways, but especially in comparison with the other similar situations (could also be best practice). Similar issues were unveiled with authors Lydenka and Adomavičius [50] who focused on the synthesis of findings from theoretical literature and first-hand research.

4.5. Relations of Our Findings to the Main Theoretical Principles

Comparing our findings with the available theoretical knowledge about cooperation (Section 3.1), we can say that they support them to a significant extent. Let us highlight a few of them:

• Trust, its building and development is a critical factor for building effective cooperation relationships.
• Cooperation-based organizational forms are very diverse: joint ventures, clusters, etc.
• Effective cooperation can increase the competitiveness of involved organizations.
• Cooperation strategy is often chosen in cases where achieving the necessary goals by a purely competitive position would be difficult.
• Effective cooperation (specific cooperation organizational forms in practice and their management) tends to create positive externalities.
• Cooperation management is dynamic. Decisions about who will be cooperated with and in which areas are executed according to the current needs. If the situation on the market changes, the state of cooperation management tends to change too. Cooperation relations arise and disappear according to current needs and the situation. Cooperation and competing strategies are both valid for decision-making processes. Managers chose according to marketing dynamics, organizational goals, and needs.

4.6. Limitations and Further Research

Our research was focused on the environment of the Slovak Republic. The specific findings are effective primarily for the Slovak situation. We believe analysis of this situation is very important, because we can see the potential in cooperation management, which can significantly positively influence competitiveness. Results of the research, however, have limited validity. Because the states of the former Eastern Bloc have a common history—a history of transition from state-controlled economy to market economy—we assume that the results of our research will have similarly significant importance in those states. Management, as well as economic systems in central Europe take over especially successful examples from western Europe (Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and France) and the USA. Based on successful practices from these countries, relevant theoretical knowledge has been created. On the general level, there is a faint significant similarity, especially in the sense of ways of gaining the competitiveness through effective cooperation. On the other hand, Slovakia and Central Europe are specific, so the theoretical and methodological procedures for examining the situation must be adequately accommodated. This fact also limits our results and their validity. There are also limitations relating to the results of other relevant research. While we found cooperation to be a fundamental factor of competitiveness and creating of synergic effects in our research, the other research approach found different conclusions. Zeng [52] pointed out that “…linkage and cooperation with government agencies do not demonstrate any significant impact on the innovation performance of SMEs.” Giovannetti [53] has the opposite opinion, concluding that “active cooperation along the local innovation network contributes to the introduction of innovations and productivity”.

The impact of the pandemic from 2020 on the market environment is significant. Findings from before the outbreak of the pandemic will help us to more precisely specify the indicators for future research. We know what topics and issues we should focus on, and after obtaining the results, we will be able to compare the situation more precisely.

5. Conclusions

We divided the article into three main parts. In the first one, we dealt with a brief explanation of the topic, we described the environment of research, and explained our methods. The Slovak environment is specific in the sense of the topic of effective cooperation management. The effects observed by us are very similar in the whole region of central Europe. Simultaneously, it is possible (after some specifics have been taken into consideration) to apply the solutions from theoretical knowledge to a worldwide level, as well as solutions based on best practice.

In the second part, we presented our main findings. Theoretical backgrounds mention the importance of effective cooperation themes between market entities for the creation of competitive advantages or synergy effects. In a similar vein, there are conclusions from miscellaneous relevant research presented. We fully agree with this because it is also confirmed by our findings. As main problems which hinder the effective cooperation, we identified the following, presented in the next table (

Table 2. Generalized main problems of research.

Research	Main Problem (Generalized)
2012	Mainly inefficient and insufficient cooperation among educational institutions and companies.
2013	Absence of cooperation and low quality of supplier–customer relationships.
2014	Qualitative thorough study between 7 companies where we could observe the single cooperation issues more in detail. We joined these results with previous ones, and they are integral part of the following framework.
2015	Inefficient cooperation environment complex system.

).

We organized the problems related to cooperation into the following framework categories (

Table 3. General explanation of cooperation management problem areas.

Cooperation Management Problem Areas		Generalized Explanation
(a)	Suitability of a cooperation partner	problems related to the cooperation relationship
(b)	Specific areas of cooperation	problems related to specific activities on cooperation
(c)	Results of cooperation	problems related to the expectations and real results of a cooperation
(d)	Effective and beneficial cooperation	problems related to management, goals of cooperation, its setting, etc.
(e)	Problems of cooperation from the perspective of the subject	specific problems from the environment of the studied companies

).

We formulated the solutions as a discussion regarding generalization of the key aspects necessary for successful cooperation between companies (

Table 4. Effective solutions of key cooperation aspects.

Key Cooperation Aspects	Effective Solutions (Generalized)
Resources	effective sharing of resources in a cooperation
Difficulty	evaluation of the difficulty of a cooperation based on the potential benefits
Purpose	taking the goals of the cooperating parties into account
Requirements	formal and informal rules of a cooperation
Key employees	functional organization and competencies of the managers responsible for managing the cooperation
Communication	the role of correct and effective exchange of information between the parties needs to be emphasized
Trust	building, development, and usage of trust between the parties
Ex post problems	expected and unexpected changes stemming from the dynamics of the environment
Globalization and external environment	opportunities and threats on the market in a global environment
Suitable tools and methods	the list of available support tools and methods for solving cooperation-based issues and for effective business management

).

Cooperation in today’s turbulent market environment represents an opportunity to establish a significant competitive advantage or to expand or stabilize a company’s market position. Cooperation management is a tool through which it is possible to manage cooperation activities in a complex manner: it analyzes the situation, sets goals and strategies, and manages the daily functioning of the cooperation. The main problems that may occur in a cooperation relationship can significantly impact its efficiency. Thus, by the identification of these main problems, their generalization, and mainly the proposal of framework solutions, we hope to support development towards better and more effective cooperation management. We consider the research in this field of work to be of high importance. We therefore plan to continue intensively in our work so far and to also focus on other crucial aspects of cooperation and its link to company competitiveness.