Degree of Autonomy

The degree of self-sufficiency indicates to what extent the company achieves growth by harnessing its own potential (“autonomy strategies”), as opposed to cooperation or acquisitions. When exploiting its own resources, those most significant to the company are research and development, along with the qualifications of its employees. Cooperation strategies hope to achieve synergistic effects for all participants by promoting cooperation between two or more firms. Depending on the value chain steps involved, cooperation can be classified as either horizontal or vertical. Similar goals are pursued when acquisition strategies are put into practice, except that in this case other companies or shares in other companies are purchased. Compared to the autonomy strategy, the advantage of the acquisition and cooperation strategies is that synergy effects can be realized much sooner. However, this has to be weighed against the considerable risks involved in coordinating and organizing these strategies (Bea/Haas 2001, pp. 171-173).