Partnership Categorisation

The first part of the analysis focuses on what kind of partnership Plastic Change and Naturli’

have. This is analysed by using the four categorisations from Nergaard et al. (2009). The point of using these categories is to understand what contributions are expected in the partnership and what kind of value creation is wanted. This enables the researchers to investigate what value creation to derive from the partnership and the process to reach the value creation.

Before the analysis can be deducted, a further look into how the partnership began is necessary to understand the motives of parties involved and what the collaboration agreement is about.

Information about the strategic partnership is from the interview conducted with Plastic Change.

In relation to the analysis, it is important to understand what Plastic Change considers the partnership with Naturli’ to be. From the interview with Plastic Change’s employees LLG and HHH, we know that Plastic Change defines the partnership with Naturli’ as a strategic partnership. LLG and HHH were asked to define what Plastic Change interprets as a strategic partnership and they gave the following explanation:

“A strategic partnership is more than just a sponsor agreement […] In a strategic partnership we [Plastic Change] earn money and make a change (…). We have shared communication, working on a project or several projects together and

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maybe shared product development (…). There are many aspects in being a strategic partner” (Appendix 5)

“There must be a shared value creation […] and a change created [Through the partnership]” – (Appendix 5)

From the statements, it can be deduced that for Plastic Change to call the collaboration with Naturli’ a strategic partnership a few factors must be present. There must be an agreement to collaborate on projects/a project, which must create value for both involved by sharing resources in order to create a change. According to LLG and HHH, the strategic partnership with Naturli’ is the first partnership Plastic Change has had with a commercial company. It is also the first partnership where Plastic Change earns money through sales volume and not a one-time donation. LLG and HHH explain that Naturli’ approached Plastic Change late in the process of developing “Naturli’ Hakket”. In relation to its new product launch “Naturli’ Hakket”, Naturli’

wanted to support an organisation that is also fighting the environmental challenge. Naturli’

argues that Naturli’ Hakket is better for the environment as production of plant-meat requires less CO2 than normal meat. It can be deduced the connection between the two organisations is the desire to create a better environment for all.

HHH says the original reason Naturli’ wanted a partnership with Plastic Change was to create a push effect to increase sales by implementing Plastic Change’s logo on Naturli’s new product, Naturli’ Hakket, to further enhance the credibility of the environmentally-friendly claim on the packaging. According to HHH, Plastic Change does not wish to use its logo solely to increase the capital of the organisation (Appendix 5). Since Plastic Change’s competencies are within the use of plastic it did not wish to promote a product of plant-meat as it had no knowledge within this field. Instead, Plastic Change suggested the possibility to work together with Naturli’ to improve the product design, more specifically the packaging, as Plastic Change has a vast knowledge of plastic and how to reuse it. The parties teamed up and designed plastic packaging made of minimum 50 percent recycled plastic, which is one of its first of its kind in the world. From both of the parties’ perspectives, this can be considered a win-win situation, as Naturli’ now can brand Naturli’ Hakket as even more environmentally-friendly with the new the packaging. In return, Plastic Change receives 0.20 DKK every time a container of Naturli’ Hakket is sold in the

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store, and with its logo on the packaging, it hopes to create more awareness about the organisation. HHH considers this as a give and take agreement, as both parties provide resources giving the opportunity to create something they could not have done on their own.

In short, HHH explains it as the parties having created a change in the production of packaging and given the consumer the opportunity to change their consumption patterns towards more environmental-friendly options (Appendix 5).

From the interviews it can be deduced that one of the shared goals between Plastic Change and Naturli’ is to solve environmental challenges, even though they do it in different ways, it can still be argued that they fight for a shared cause. Plastic Change is more concerned with the reusing and recycling of plastic, whereas Naturli’s focus is more on ecological food products. The second shared goal is to increase capital. According to LLG, Plastic Change’s logo on the packaging increases the reliability of the environmental claim that the packaging is eco-friendly (Appendix 5). This can be seen as a strength for Naturli’ and a way to increase sales.

From Plastic Change’s perspective, sales volume is important as well, due to the fact that the more products that are sold, the higher the income will be for Plastic Change. A third shared goal is to introduce a long-lasting change. It can be argued that the new plastic packaging is meant as an opportunity to create a change in the food production industry, since minimum 50 percent of the container is made from recycled plastic.

It can be deduced that the partnership is intended to create value both mutually and individually, this was also an important factor for Plastic Change in its interpretation of a strategic partnership. At the individual level, it can be argued that Naturli’ has gained new knowledge about how to improve plastic packaging, which it might be able to scale to other products in the future. While Plastic Change has gained new knowledge about how to raise capital and at the same time impact commercial companies in a more recycling-friendly manner, which it might be able to use in future partnerships.

Plastic Change’s aim as an individual organisation is to impact the circle of actors, which includes governmental institutions, companies and individuals. It can be argued that the partnership with Naturli’ allows Plastic Change to strengthen the goal to impact both companies and individuals from a long-term perspective. This is done through the partnership

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as it creates opportunities the organisation would not have had on its own, even though it might be on a small scale that the impact of companies and consumers takes place. In relation to the impact, HHH says in the interview that the strategic partnership is a step in the right direction towards creating an impact on the circle of actors (Appendix 5). The overlap of shared goals, individual goals and economic impact makes it hard to determine what partnership category the strategic partnership between Plastic Change and Naturli’ can be categorised as.

Looking at the fourth category, symbiotic value creation, Neergaard et al. (2009) state that in this partnership category both parties work to solve a common problem by developing a new product creating value for all involved. This is what Nergaard et al. (2009) refer to as a more aligned partnership than the third partnership category. It can be argued that the partnership between Plastic Change and Naturli’ is strongly grounded in this category, as the overall environmental challenge is a shared problem, they work together to find solutions to the problem. Also, HHH states in the interview that Plastic Change and Naturli’ are currently looking into the opportunity to expand the partnership to other products. This supports the argument that the partnership, to a large extent, is aligned providing further strength to place the partnership in the symbiotic value creation category.

At the same time, it can be argued that the third category, independent value creation, is worth investigating as well. This category is considered a semi-strategic partnership. The parties work together collectively to reach individual goals. The main point is that the goals are not directly conflicting with the goals of the other party. As mentioned, both Plastic Change and Naturli’ can use some parts of the partnership’s outcome to reach individual goals as well as those shared.

The partnership allows Plastic Change to increase its own capital to support both on-going and new projects and research. At the same time, the partnership helps support Plastic Change to create a long-term change within the circle of actors, as the partnership can be said to impact both individuals and the commercial company. Naturli’ can also use the partnership for individual gain. Naturli’ can use the credibility stamp from Plastic Changes’ logo to brand itself as an even more environmental-friendly firm and in that way strengthens its own brand. In the partnership Plastic Change provided the knowledge and credibility stamp to the product;

Naturli’ had the resources to produce it. Of course, it should be mentioned that Naturli’ could have turned to other experts within plastic production to gain the same knowledge it received

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from Plastic Change. This means that Naturli’ would not be able to have Plastic Changes’ logo on the packaging, which it might consider an important factor for the sales volume. This leads back to the fact that the partnership is a combination of reaching shared and individual goals and about increasing capital. Even though the parties seek to increase capital as a mutual goal, the purpose of increasing capital is done to reach different end goals in the individual organisations. Since HHH and LLG define increasing capital through the partnership as an important factor in a strategic partnership, it can be argued the reciprocal exchange category should be considered in connection with the symbiotic and independent value creation category. The reciprocal category is dependant on sales volume. A donation will be given to the NGO depending on sales volume, in this case with Plastic Change and Naturli’ 0.20 DKK is donated to Plastic Change every time a container of Naturli’ Hakket is sold. Often this collaboration is time-limited to short sales campaigns, which is not the case in the partnership between Plastic Change and Naturli’. Also, the reciprocal category is not concerned with mutual value creation, which is an important factor in a strategic partnership as expressed by HHH and LLG in the interview (Appendix 5). It can be argued that the strategic partnership between Plastic Change and Naturli’ is only connected to the reciprocal exchange category in relation to donation by sales volume. The strategic partnership does not match other criteria in the category; nonetheless, the donation is an important part of the strategic partnership.

Due to the fact that the categorisations should not be regarded as static and that the collaboration can take place on more levels at the same time, according to Neergaard et al.

(2009), the researchers argue that the main category used the strategic partnership between Plastic Change and Naturli’ is a mix of the symbiotic value creation category and the independent value creation category. This is possible due to the fact that the value created in the partnership is used to reach both shared and individual goals by creating a new product to solve a common problem. At the same time, it enables the parties to reach individual goals without being in direct conflict with the other party’s individual goals. It can be argued that the part of the reciprocal category concerning donations based on sales volume should be part of the main category description as well, though the researchers stress that it is not considered the most important part of the partnership category description. This is because the aim of the partnership is to create shared value that hopefully will enable each party to attain its vision and the shared goals.

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The question to be asked is how can the parties reach shared and individual value creation in a strategic partnership? To investigate this further, a closer analysis of the concept of co-creation is needed to understand the process of value creation.