%0 Journal Article %J Open Source Business Resource %D 2011 %T The Strategic Impact of Corporate Responsibility and Criminal Networks on Value Co-Creation %A Frederick Ahen %A Peter Zettinig %X This article is motivated by the increasing concern about the ever-declining security of pharmaceutical products due to the abundance of counterfeit network actors. We argue that if networks are effective mechanisms for criminal organizations to infiltrate into any value chain, then networks should also work for responsible businesses in their quests to counter this phenomenon of value destruction, which is ultimately detrimental to the value co-creation process. Thus, this article demonstrates a nuanced understanding of the strategic impact of corporate responsibility of actors in networks on value co-creation. The current discourse on value co-creation in business networks is structured in such a way that it precludes its inherent corporate responsibility component even though they are not mutually exclusive. Moreover, research on value co-creation aimed at the proactive and responsible defence of a network substance via value co-protection has been mostly scant. We propose a model of value-optimization through value co-protection and ethical responsibility. This way of theorizing has several implications for both policy making and managerial decision making in the pharmaceutical industry and beyond. %B Open Source Business Resource %I Talent First Network %C Ottawa %8 03/2011 %G eng %U http://timreview.ca/article/427 %N March 2011 %9 Articles %1 Turku School of Economics Frederick Ahen is a doctoral researcher at the Turku School of Economics, Turku, Finland. He holds a M.Sc. degree in International Business from the London South Bank University, London, UK and a B.Sc. in Economics and International Business from the Università Politecnica delle Marche Ancona, Italy. Frederick is interested in advancing theoretical and empirical analysis into the following substantive domains: international strategies of MNCs in the science and innovation industries, especially pharmaceutical companies operating in developing economies, corporate responsibility, value co-creation, comparative institutional analysis, and criminal organizational networks. %2 Turku School of Economics Peter Zettinig received his PhD in International Business from Turku School of Economics, 2003. Before joining Turku School of Economics as Assistant Professor in 2008, Peter held the position of Senior Lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. His research interests relate to international business strategy - among others.