Focus on one type of inter-firm relationship. 1. In a first part of the term paper (70-80% of the paper), reflect on the main factors explaining the success/challenges of one inter-firm partnership type of your choice, e.g. alliances, joint ventures, outsourcing, mergers & acquisitions, franchising, licensing, etc. In so doing, you can adopt a holistic perspective, or focus your analysis on a particular theme such as e.g. the financial side of mergers, or the human side in alliances. 2. Based on this review and understanding, in a second part (20-30% of the paper), please consider how your review (in part one of the paper) can help you identify generic success/challenge factors that would work across all inter-firm relationship types. 3. Finally, please end your paper with conclusions and managerial recommendations. Please base your work on (a) a sound overview of the literature, and (b) where possible, real-life, experienced or media reporting on case example(s) from industry. You can conduct interviews with professionals if you so wish. Remain creative in your approach.  Word count: 3,000 words.  4 Your goal is to provide an insightful, intelligent, systematic yet creative synthesis of your appreciation of the topic. Please seek to develop conceptual frameworks, if possible. A term paper is expected to be based on an average of 20+ references.