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Int. J. Production Economics 121 (2009) 550561 www.elsevier.com/locate/ijpe

A swift response framework for measuring the strategic t for a horizontal collaborative initiative
Kobe Naesens, Ludo Gelders, Liliane Pintelon
Centre for Industrial Management, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium Available online 27 April 2007

Abstract Companies operate globally and face increasing competition. Collaboration between companies could be a critical factor to remain competitive. Extensive academic research addressed the collaboration inside a supply chain (vertical collaboration). Despite persuasive research, a literature survey indicates some major theoretical shortcomings, as presented in this paper. A major theoretical and practical shortcoming is the lack of a strategic decision support framework for the implementation of horizontal collaboration (collaboration between different supply chains). An appropriate collaborationfeasibility test is needed here. Two companies strategically ready to work together should rst test if no insurmountable practices inhibit the collaboration. If such practices are present, initiating a collaborative strategy will be probably a waste of time and effort. This paper starts with determining the key elements inuencing feasibility based on a literature study and in-depth interviews in different companies. The Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model is used. These quantitative elements are hierarchically classied and are combined in a feasibility-test model. At the same time, lowerlevel hierarchical qualitative elements such as company characteristics are aggregated using the analytic hierarchy process as a method of multi-criteria decision-making and are integrated in the model in order to evaluate the different collaboration-types. The model is validated by means of several case studies of which one is presented in this paper. r 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: SCM; Collaborative supply network; Strategic t; AHP; Case study

1. Introduction Companies are continuously searching for competitive advantage. This is necessary due to shorter product life cycles, shrinking prot margins, increased delivery requirements and increased global competition. To maintain a competitive advantage, working together or collaborating could be a critical success factor. Collaboration may take several
Corresponding author.

E-mail address: Kobe.Naesens@cib.kuleuven.be (K. Naesens).

forms such as informal meetings or formal teams with members of different companies. In general, two types of collaboration can be distinguished, namely vertical and horizontal collaboration. The former can be dened as collaboration between parties performing complementary activities or services while the latter indicates the collaboration between parties performing the same type of activities and/or services (Naesens et al., 2004b; Cruijssen et al., 2005). Traditionally, collaboration was limited to partners inside the supply chain, which was considered

0925-5273/$ - see front matter r 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijpe.2007.04.004

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as an isolated system (vertical collaboration). Collaboration with companies of another supply chain (horizontal collaboration) is not yet widespread. Most horizontal collaboration can be found between companies of two non-competitive supply chains but collaboration can also exist between two directly competitive rms. A supply network is considered to be a non-serial structure and thus a structure consisting of vertical and horizontal collaboration (Naesens et al., 2004a). 2. Research focus Extensive academic research addressed the collaboration inside the supply chain or vertical collaboration. Almost all scholarly business journals (e.g. Operations & Production Management, Management Science, International Journal of Production Economics) published optimization models concerning this type of collaboration. Despite extensive academic research mentioning the importance of horizontal collaboration, studies (Naesens et al., 2004a; Cruijssen et al., 2005) showed the reluctance of companies to implement a supply network. A strategic decision support framework for implementing horizontal collaboration is not yet available. In this research, we focus on developing a decision support framework for the implementation of a specic type of horizontal collaboration, namely resource pooling in inventory management. The framework is depicted in Fig. 1. In the rst step, the objective of the collaboration should be identied. When focusing on pooling warehouses, the main reason to collaborate is mostly to diminish
STEP 1: objective of collaboration STEP 2: framework Level 1 : strategic fit As is / To be (best practice) Required improvements ? Insurmountable practices ? Level 2 : strategic / tactical decisions Identifying preferred partner(s) and defining goals Pooling items, % of total stock, etc. Agreements on sharing costs / benefits Level 3 : Implementing / maintaining Building and maintaining trust
Fig. 1. Decision support framework for horizontal collaboration.

the handling and overhead costs. In the second step, the decision maker should walk through the different levels of the framework. The framework developed consists of three levels. The rst level examines the strategic t between companies. The as is/to be situation and potential compatibilities as well as possible insurmountable practices are examined. In this level the potential partners are identied. Until here, no clear picture on the impact of the collaboration on costs and benets is available. The second level therefore identies the costs and benets for each partner. The decision maker can then decide whether pursuing the collaborative initiative is wise and if so, who should be the preferred partner(s). The third level considers implementing and sustaining the collaboration. Psychological elements such as trust are also considered. This (third) level is described in Naesens et al. (2006). This level presents some milestones necessary to enhance trust between the partners (including contractual agreements and the like). This paper addresses the rst level, the strategic t. The objective of the potential collaboration has been identied but a swift strategic t test should be performed in order to identify the potential partners. The concept of t received considerable attention. Studies (Chandler, 1962; Lawrence and Lorsch, 1967; Thompson, 1967; Radder and Louw, 1998) dened this concept as the t between the organizational structure, strategy, and/or the wider environment (external t) and the t among groups or units within the organization (internal t). Furthermore, Smith and Reece (1999) refer to Skinner (1969) who described, already in 1969, the need for companies to have the proper external t when developing and implementing a manufacturing strategy. The focus of this research is on the match between two companies, having their own operations and environment, with regard to horizontal collaboration (resource pooling in inventories). It takes time and resources to establish, maintain and develop business relationships between rms (Anderson et al., 2001). Therefore, checking the compatibility of the two companies in advance is very important. The deliverable of this part of the research is a practical tool for checking the strategic t between two companies willing to initiate resource pooling in inventory management. Decision makers of both companies should separately check, based on characteristics of both companies, if they do t or not.

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3. Methodology This study is based on a literature study and indepth case studies in eight companies located in Belgium. The companies have different strategies, products and environments. Each of the rst six (AF) companies mentioned in Table 1 already had a collaborative partnership on inventory pooling with a company in the same sector. Most partnerships were successful except case study C because of a lack of strategic t. Furthermore, company G and H were added to the study to check if the tool developed is also usable in the so-called soft-sector when the collaborative initiative is not focused on inventory pooling. All observations and interviews were performed by one of the authors together with a masters student of the Faculty of Psychology of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. The persons interviewed were supply chain managers or board members and were selected because they were in charge of implementing or sustaining the collaborative initiative. The study started with a list of 300 different elements, based on literature study, conference papers and informal contacts with practitioners. A more in-depth literature study revealed that this list could be drastically reduced based on criteria as relevance, overlap, measurability, and the like. Eventually 58 performance elements were retained. The case studies conrmed that these elements covered all relevant issues for the horizontal collaboration concerning resource pooling in inventory management.
Table 1 Case study companies Company A B C D E F G H Sector Transportation Transportation Telecom FMCG Chemical Beverages Knowledge institution Service provider for Prevention and security Categorization Belgium-France International National Multinational Multinational Multinational International National Size

During the interviews, both a questionnaire with a Likert-scale and open-questions have been used. The questionnaire has been structured around the three phases mentioned by Gray (1989): i.e. problem setting, direction setting and implementation. An extra phase was added incorporating general questions related to the partnership that were not specic for a phase mentioned by Gray (1989). It is not the purpose of this paper to provide statistical evidence on the selection of the criteria but rather to prove the practical relevance of the tool. Validation of the tool has been performed by different case studies of which one is described at the end of this paper. Furthermore, for each of the performance attributes, metrics have been determined based on the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model (Supply Chain Council, 2005). The performance attributes have been hierarchically classied to determine if collaboration is possible. Three different alternatives have been checked: no collaboration, informal collaboration or partnership. To achieve this, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) has been used because of the hierarchical nature of the problem and the independency of each of the identied performance attributes. 3.1. Principles of AHP When applying AHP, a hierarchical decision scheme is constructed by decomposing the decision problem into its decision elements. The importance or preferability of the decision elements are compared in a pair-wise manner with regard to

Person interviewed Sales manager Staff member Purchasing & contracting ofcer Customer business development manager Procurement & logistics manager Senior ofcer training & development Head information division personnel department Prevention advisor for psychological aspects

Collaboration Resource (truck) pooling Resource (truck) pooling R&D pooling Resource (warehouse) pooling Production pooling Training & development pooling Collaboration personnel department Collaboration psychological aspects

Small Medium Large Large Large Large Large Large

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the element preceding them in the hierarchy. Furthermore, numerical techniques are used to derive quantitative values from verbal comparisons (Kurttila et al., 2000). The advantages of AHP include its ability to make both qualitative and quantitative decision attributes commensurable, and its exibility with regard to the setting of the objective (Kangas, 1992). Because, the model described in this paper contains both qualitative and quantitative elements that may be assumed to be independent of each other, this method is appropriate. As mentioned, the decision maker evaluates all alternatives two by two. AHP uses simple pair-wise comparisons to determine weights and ratings so that the decision maker can concentrate on just two elements at a time. Pair-wise comparisons are quantied by using a scale aij. Such an element of the comparison matrix is a one-to-one mapping between the set of discrete linguistic choices, and a discrete set of numbers, which represent the importance, or weight, of the previous linguistic choices. The scale proposed by Saaty (1980) and used in this study is illustrated in Table 2. The quantied judgment on pairs of criteria Ci to Cj are represented by an n-by-n matrix (Saaty, 1980): A aij with i; j 1; 2; 3; . . . ; n. To obtain the weight of each alternative, Saaty applied the expression Aw nw where w is an eigenvector of A with eigenvalue n. Notice that because of the reciprocity of the decision, aij 1/aji.

4. Applying AHP The above-described AHP method has been used to evaluate the strategic t between two companies willing to collaborate in the setting of resource pooling in inventory management. An example of this kind of pooling is found, e.g., when two companies with different stock keeping units share one warehouse lowering the handling costs. The swift-scan tool is not intended to perform an in-depth analysis (including determining the allocation of the costs and benets per partner). The tool however should help management in coping with the question if, based on a rst rough analysis, collaboration with the potential partner is feasible and/or desirable. The strategic t test is initiated when the objective for the collaborative initiative is formulated and possible partners identied. Some typical examples of objectives are: lowering costs, offering better service (lead-time reduction) and geographical coverage. An appropriate objective will highly inuence the overall level of collaboration and will therefore affect the next steps of the analysis. 4.1. AHP step 1: the hierarchical structure In AHP, a problem is structured as a hierarchy. Therefore, the rst step is to break down the multicriteria problem into a hierarchical sequence with evaluation criteria and alternatives. In this study, ve levels have been determined namely goal, criteria, subcriteria, elements and alternatives (see Fig. 2). The number of levels was limited in order to create an easy to manage improvement analysis tool. (1) Goal: the goal of the tool is to test which alternative would be optimal based on the different characteristics of the potential partnering company, product or service, environment, etc. (2) Alternatives: three different types of collaboration are considered here, no collaboration, informal collaboration and partnership. The denition and delineation of the types of collaboration is discussed in Naesens et al. (2004a) in which a more extensive overview of partnerships has been developed. (3) Criteria: the goal is rst divided into four criteria. The four criteria resulting from this

Table 2 AHP-scale proposed by Saaty (1980) Intensity of importance 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Denition

Equal Between equal and moderate Moderate Between moderate and strong Strong Between strong and very strong Very strong Between very strong and extreme Extreme Decimal judgements are allowed for ne tuning.

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Fig. 2. Hierarchical structure for evaluating strategic t.

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research are: company characteristics, competitive advantage, internal processes and external parameters. (4) Subcriteria: at this level, the criteria are subdivided into more specic elements. Company characteristics are divided into company structure, nancial strength, image and general company characteristics. Competitive advantage is subdivided into product/service and general competitive advantage. The internal processes criterion is subdivided into three more specic subcriteria namely the (rather) operational, tactical and strategic elements and external parameters is subdivided further into industry-specic elements and general external parameters. (5) Elements: each of the above subcriteria is furthermore subdivided into a limited number of elements per subcriterion. For example, company structure is subdivided into the scale of the company and the decision structure. Those elements were mentioned to be important during the case studies and also emerged from the literature study. All elements can be found in Fig. 2. Based on the results obtained from case study companies G and H, it became clear that only the operational elements (subcriterion internal processes) needed to be customized when considering another type of horizontal collaboration. The tool can thus be considered to be a generic tool for horizontal collaboration (with some minor customization when not focusing on resource pooling). Also for each of the elements a metric based on the SCOR model is determined. The SCOR model is a process reference model. Specically, it links process elements, metrics, best practices and features associated with the execution of a supply chain in a unique format. The use of this process reference model allows companies to communicate using common terminology and standard descriptions of the process elements. It helps to understand the overall supply chain management process and the best practices that yield the optimal overall performance (Huang et al., 2005). For example, reliability could be measured by Perfect order fulllment, i.e., percentage of accuracy in order delivery time, amount and place. Note that the qualitative elements, e.g., environmental reputation, cannot be translated into a metric. The decision maker should therefore make judgments by using, for example, a Likert-scale.

4.2. AHP step 2: dening the specic objective The overall objective of the collaboration has been determined, in this case a reduction of handling costs and warehousing overhead. A keen insight in the overall objective of the collaboration is necessary in order to be able to determine the case-depending operational internal parameters. In AHP-step 2, the objective of the collaboration should be more specically stated. In this step, the overall objective of the rst step should be preferably quantied. For example, with the resource pooling initiative, the objective is to obtain a cost reduction of 10% concerning handling and overhead cost in warehousing. 4.3. AHP step 3: listing possible partnering companies In this research, a list of possible partnering companies is assumed to be available. This is acceptable because in a business context, a company willing to engage in collaboration mostly knows in advance the set of potential partnering companies. These companies will also perform a similar check. Examples of important parameters for possible partnering companies are: product rotation, critical volume and physical characteristics. The outcome of this step is a list with companies for which at rst sight a collaboration strategy could help to reach the previously mentioned objective. 4.4. AHP step 4: assigning weights When the objective has been set, the decision maker should give relative weights to the elements, subcriteria and criteria. This can be done by lling in the developed matrices by using a Likert-scale. Who is involved in this step depends on the structure and size of the company. Mostly, weights are given by top-management in SMEs and by a middle-management project team in larger companies. For user-friendliness, scores could be given in matrix format. Example (Table 3): in terms of achieving a higher general competitive advantage, what is the relative impact of each element? In terms of general competitive advantage, market share is moderately more important than customer loyalty (3) and strongly more important than vertical integration (5) and technological know-how (5).

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Customer loyalty is between moderately and strongly more important than vertical integration (4) and moderately more important than technological know-how (3). Finally, vertical integration has equal importance as technological know-how (1) when describing general competitive advantage. The same methodology is used to gather the relative weights for the other elements, subcriteria and criteria. The weights are independent of the partners considered and should therefore not be reassigned when evaluating other partners. As such, the method is a quick scan tool for multiple potential partners (Table 3). 4.5. AHP step 5: evaluating the alternatives Once the weights are given, the decision maker should evaluate the performance of the potential partner on the different elements. Remember that the potential partner will perform the same strategic t in the rst company. For each element, every possible combination of two alternatives is judged. The score (performance) of the potential partnering company is given for each element and the decision maker should judge based on this score if no collaboration, informal collaboration or a partnership is more appropriate. Example (Table 4): based on the quality of the products of the partnering company, the decision maker strongly prefers informal collaboration above no collaboration (1/5); moderately prefers a partnership above no collaboration (1/3) and

moderately prefers informal collaboration above a partnership (3). The performances of the elements are mostly easy to answer by middle or top management of the company and are therefore not time or money consuming. This is of course a main requirement for a rst quick strategic t scan (Table 4). By calculating the weight for each element relative to the strategic t (thus taking into account the weights given to the elements, subcriteria and criteria), the decision maker can determine the most important elements and thus limit the amount of information to be gathered or measured. In this way, the decision maker can even fasten up the strategic t check. Although reducing the number of elements will inherently cause a less punctual check. As mentioned, the partnering company will perform the same strategic t check. Furthermore, the decision makers have to decide if the test results are shared with the partnering company or not. Sharing the information on weaknesses and strengths of the potential partnering company can be a motivation for improvement and thus enhance the initial conditions for future partnerships. 4.6. AHP step 6: selecting the appropriate alternative In the nal step, the most appropriate alternative is selected by means of a linear additive function, in which the relative priorities for an alternative are multiplied by the importance of the element, subcriterion and criterion (Table 5).

Table 3 Example of pair-wise comparison of elements in terms of general competitive advantage General competitive advantage Market share Customer loyalty Vertical integration Technological know-how Market share Customer loyalty 3 Vertical integration 5 4 Technological know-how 5 3 1

Table 4 Pair-wise comparison of alternatives Quality of products No collaboration Informal collaboration Partnership No collaboration Informal collaboration 1/5 Partnership 1/3 3

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K. Naesens et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 121 (2009) 550561 Table 5 Selection of alternative Name No collaboration Informal collaboration Partnership Normals 0.28 0.31 0.41 Table 6 Selection of alternativescase study Name No collaboration Informal collaboration Partnership Normals 0.09 0.27 0.64 557

In this example, a partnership is preferred above informal collaboration or no collaboration (0.41 versus 0.31 and 0.28). From this table, the decision maker can estimate if the possible partnering company does strategically t or not. Notice that this method does not give the decision maker a black or white solution. The decision maker gets an indication how well the potential partnering company ts! Furthermore, it is possible to track down why a certain alternative is preferred above another. It is therefore possible to nd the required improvements and determine if there are insurmountable practices making the partnership a nishing story. 4.7. AHP step 7: check consistency The consistency ratio of the judgments should be checked. Therefore, it is necessary to calculate the maximum eigenvalue lmax from Aw lmax w where w is the normalized eigenvector of A and A the matrix. Notice that lmaxXn with n the number of elements. The closer lmax is to n, the more consistent will be the judgments provided. Here, n is the number of elements and A the matrix. The Consistency Index can be calculated as follows: CI lmax n . n1

The consistency ratio (CR) is obtained by dividing the CI value by the corresponding Random Consistency Index evaluated by Saaty through the generation of a random matrix with different dimensions (n) (Saaty, 1980). A CRp0.1 is considered acceptable. 5. Case study The above-described model has been tested by several case studies of which one is described in this paper.

The strategic t has been tested in a chemical company located in the Antwerp region, Belgium. The company belongs to a multinational group and employs about 850 full-time equivalents. The person interviewed was the Supply Chain Manager responsible for the on-going collaborative initiative. The goal of this initiative is to diminish the total logistics cost by economies of scale and scope. Table 6 presents the overall result of the strategic t test. Notice that a partnership is strongly preferred above informal collaboration and no collaboration. In order to evaluate the different elements, these are ranked according to their weight. Subgroup A gathers the 10% most important elements, subgroup B the 1030% next most important elements, subgroup C the following 4070% elements and nally subgroup D the remaining 40%. Appendix 1 gives an overview of the outcome. Most focus will of course be given to subgroups A and B when evaluating the strategic t. As can be seen in Fig. 3 and Appendix 1, all elements of subgroup A except customer orientation are pointing to a partnership. One can thus conclude that those parameters will not endanger a potential collaborative initiative. However, for the element customer orientation, which is a major element, a partnership is not preferred above informal collaboration or no collaboration. Improving this element can lead thus to an overall improved partnership (and lead to a long-term strategic advantage). When analyzing subgroup B (see Fig. 4 and Appendix 1), one notices that for most of the elements a partnership is preferred. For one element, business performance, informal collaboration is preferred. This is thus a potential threat for the partnership and should be improved. Furthermore, for four elements no preferability is identied. By improving as well those parameters, the overall partnership could be improved.

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Subgroup A 1 Decision taking structure

9 8 7 6
Partnership Informal collaboration No collaboration

6 General culture

5 4 3 2

2 Environmental reputation

1 0

3 Outsourcing strategies

3 Customer orientation

3 Geographical issues
Fig. 3. Analysis subgroup A.

Subgroup B 17 Shareholders expectations

7 Partner / competitor
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

8 Communication

Partnership Informal collaboration No collaboration

17 Ease exit from market

8 ICT integration

16 Business performance

10 Defensive / offensive

15 Decision taking speed

10 Top management involvement

14 Previous partnerships 13 Time-horizon

12 General reputation

Fig. 4. Analysis subgroup B.

The elements of subgroups C and D are analyzed in a similar way but due to their relative limited importance, details are not provided in this paper.

6. Conclusions and contributions This research focuses on the strategic t between two companies planning to initiate resource pooling

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in inventories. In real-life, strategic t is mostly measured based on maximum 10 parameters. This reduces its accuracy tremendously and causes a lot of unsuccessful partnerships because of a lack of strategic t. In order to remediate this, this study develops a tool taking into account a broader set of key elements when measuring the strategic t. The practical tool is based on a literature study and indepth interviews. In a rst step, 58 key elements in evaluating the strategic t are considered. The identication of those elements is one of the major strengths of this research because the decision maker is now able to check the strategic t based on 58 well-known or easy to measure parameters. AHP was used to group them into subcriteria and criteria. In a next step, the alternatives have been scored for every element and weights for each of the elements, subcriteria and criteria have been determined. Finally, this results in ranking the alternatives (no collaboration, informal collaboration or partnership) based on the strategic t. Each of the partnering companies should perform this strategic

t test and it is up to the decision makers if the information about the strengths and weaknesses of the partnering companies is shared or not. Furthermore, this tool can be used to classify best tting companies out of a large list of candidate companies. A last benet is the use of the tool as an evaluation tool once the partnership has been implemented and as such it helps to pinpoint areas for constant improvement during the partnership. The tool developed adds value to the rst phase of setting up horizontal collaboration. It ensures that going ahead with a partnership is only undertaken while condent that there is a strategic t with the intended partners. This avoids wasting time and money trying to set up partnerships with unsuitable partners. It is recommended to involve a multidisciplinary team in carrying out the strategic t study in order to avoid any subjective bias from individual decision makers. 7. APPENDIX 1 Table A1

Table A1 Ranking Elements Value Partnership Informal collaboration 2.13 0.75 1.00 3.08 1.67 1.67 1.00 1.67 1.67 1.00 2.60 0.75 1.67 2.13 1.25 3.50 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.25 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.25 No collaboration 0.21 0.63 1.00 0.14 0.25 0.25 1.00 0.27 0.25 1.00 0.17 0.63 0.25 0.19 0.38 0.38 1.00 1.00 0.75 0.38 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.38 C Subgroup

1 2 3 3 3 6 7 8 8 10 10 12 13 14 15 16 17 17 19 20 20 22 22 22 22

Decision taking structure Environmental reputation Customer orientation Geographical issues Outsourcing strategies General culture Partner/competitor Communication ICT integration Defensive/offensive Top management involvement General reputation Time-horizon Previous partnerships Decision taking speed Business performance Ease exit from market Shareholders expectations Lead-time Complementary Demand variability Total inventory cost #SKUs Inventory turnover Service level

111.11 80.00 33.33 33.33 33.33 29.44 26.30 16.20 16.20 14.81 14.81 8.89 8.87 8.65 7.72 4.39 4.20 4.20 2.61 2.48 2.48 2.44 2.44 2.44 2.44

5.00 3.00 1.00 7.50 4.50 4.50 1.00 4.00 4.50 1.00 6.00 3.00 4.50 6.00 3.00 1.17 1.00 1.00 1.50 3.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 3.00

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560 Table A1 (continued ) Ranking Elements Value Partnership Informal collaboration 1.67 1.00 2.13 1.25 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.25 3.50 1.00 1.25 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 3.50 1.00 2.60 2.13 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 3.50 1.25 1.00 2.60 1.00 1.00 1.00 No collaboration 0.25 1.00 0.19 0.38 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.38 0.29 1.00 0.42 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.29 1.00 0.16 0.21 0.67 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.29 0.42 1.00 0.17 1.00 1.00 1.00 D Subgroup K. Naesens et al. / Int. J. Production Economics 121 (2009) 550561

26 27 27 29 29 31 31 31 31 35 36 37 37 39 39 39 42 43 44 45 45 45 48 48 50 51 52 53 54 55 55 57 58

Reliability Level Scope Investments Collaborative planning Market share Customer loyalty Vertical integration Technological know-how Scale Growth potential Supplementary Competitive pressure Flexibility Control Size of products Financial stability Prot potential Quality of services Productivity Capacity utilization Quality product/service Entry barriers Technological change Price elasticity Capital required/available General business risk Capital intensity Resource utilization Quality of products Product life cycles Juridische grenzen Ination rate

2.38 2.37 2.37 2.01 2.01 1.96 1.96 1.96 1.96 1.74 1.50 1.20 1.20 1.09 1.09 1.09 0.69 0.69 0.59 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.35 0.27 0.26 0.18 0.18 0.13 0.13 0.11 0.02

4.50 1.00 6.00 3.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 3.00 1.67 1.00 2.50 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.67 1.00 6.50 5.00 2.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.67 2.50 1.00 6.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

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