'rules' for cooperation in an automotive supply chain
Toyota's supply chain network, according to Dyer and Nobeoka in 2000, had solved three fundamental dilemmas with regard to knowledge-sharing by devising methods to
- motivate members to participate and openly share valuable knowledge whilst also preventing undesirable spillover to competitors,
- prevent free riders
- reduce the costs associated with finding and accessing different types of valuable knowledge.
Toyota achieved this, the authors assert, by creating a strong network identity with rules for participation and entry into the network. Mostly importantly, production knowledge was viewed as the property of the whole network.
Although Dyer and Nobeoka were not explicit in their analysis that the Toyota 'rules' are those of the 'rules' for the evolution of cooperation, they are indeed so, as illustrated in the comparative analysis of the Toyota and Ford supply chains at WMG's Innovation Lab in 2005.