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The case study "Enemies with benefits: Daimler and BMW's mobility ecosystem" portrays how the German automotive giants Daimler AG and the BMW Group, strong competitors for decades, bundle different ventures and activities in the field of new mobility solutions to create a joint ecosystem called "YOUR NOW". The ecosystem entails a variety of different business models covering car sharing, ride-hailing, charging, parking, and mobility-as-a-service offerings. These different divisions (that Daimler and BMW often refer to as "verticals") oftentimes complement each other, but partly also compete with each other. This situation creates a unique potential to combine complementary resources and capabilities, but also causes tensions from competitive behaviors among the single ventures.

The 1999 strategic alliance between Renault and Nissan made this partnership the longest ever among large firms in the automotive industry. Together, the alliance partners are active in every important territorial market and in every customer segment worldwide.1 As the alliance was announced, automotive industry experts were very skeptical2 because both companies were having difficulties. The initial alliance partners started from weak positions as the collaboration was formed; however, today the alliance is a leader in electric vehicles,3 ranks among the top-three largest car manufacturers worldwide,4 and sold more than 10.6 million vehicles5 in 2017. Although the alliance encountered a number of challenges and difficulties over the years (e.g., increasing industry competition, pressure to generate synergies, the financial crisis of 2008, and recent trends disrupting the automotive industry), it has been extended over time, most importantly by the inclusion of Mitsubishi in 2016, as Nissan acquired a stake in its Japanese rival. Twenty years after its formation, the Renault-Nissan alliance is a prime example for strategic alliances because of its financial success in the past.