The path that I suggest is to conduct a Frame Analysis: what do I mean with this?

To determine frames to be compared:

1 - Your Company: strategy, business objective, skylls and constraints

2- The Target Company : same picture made by you (that is from outside)

Than you make an approach with the Target Company inviting them  to identify "together" the links (missing or existing) between the two Companies (Strategies and objectives) in the  case of a possible business cooperation.

In practice, you kindly invite them to make the same Frame analysis from "their" point of view and to compare "together " the outcoming  4 frames. picture.

Following this approach  you might find jointly the" fifth Frame", that is: the one leading to possible  fruitful business connection!

You might find that by  proposing and applying this " two sides Frame Analysis " it becomes easier  and  time saving  for both the step of defining, afterwards,  the possible common path to achieve joint projects and results definition.

I do follow this approach whenever possible!

Kind regards

Alberto

Partnerships is what enables many companies to make continuous improvements. By sharing with others, you can direct your resources and capabilities to projects you consider most important.

http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/partnerships_main.html

Look at Adner, Ron: Match Your Innovation Strategy to Your Innovation Ecosystem. Harvard Business Review, April 2006, vol. 84, pp. 98-107. might be helpful

Sorry, but I am not alive of any method for partner selection. You have to know what you want to reach and then pick those that can significantly contribute to your vision. 

Hi Julian, what questions can give you a comment that is apparently quite harmless but as you will decide if it is.

For companies in our business network to be a support to achieve our goals they must be companies that although they may be new, the people who directed must have a broad experience in the business sector in which you develop .

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Hola Julian, sobre lo que preguntas puede darte un comentario que aparentemente es muy inofensivo pero ya tu decidirás si así es.

Para tener empresas en nuestra red de negocios que sean un soporte para el logro de nuestros objetivos éstas deben ser empresas que a pesar de que puedan ser nuevas, las personas que las dirijan deben tener una experiencia amplia en el sector de negocios en que te desarrollas.

To all contributors: Thank you for your helpful input.

Especially by the input of Mr. Camporesi and Mr. Alfaro it becomes more visibile, that this first identification of potential partners for a value network should be conducted through a quite qualitative analysis. The "danger" I see there, that this approach is quite subjective. But so far, I don´t see an alternative.

I would suggest to read 2 of my papers: 1. the light side and the dark side of inter-firm collaboration, Corporate Ownership and Control Journal, 2009 and Why networks often fail, Tourism mgmt, 2014. In these papers, I propose a model where I analyze the reasons why networks may fail or take off, looking at partners' features as antecedents. These antecedents can be used also to examine positive situations.

Thank you Mrs. Della Corte. As soon as possible I will follow your recommendation.

Hello.  Developing Referral Champions might be an angle to explore here.  The referral model, developed by Andy Lopada, has not been fully validated. However, many individuals have achieved success implementing the model

http://www.lopata.co.uk

I suggest that you first make a list of factors that are meaningful to your business network. Answer the question of where you want to go or where you want to go will be important,

For example, if you want to add value to your network by the participants, or content, so the look will be will be different adding value..

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Sugiero que primero hagas una lista de factores que sean significativos para tu red de negocios. Responder a la pregunta de hacia donde quieres ir o hacia donde quieres llegar será importante,

Por ejemplo, si quieres agregar valor a tu red por los participantes, o por los contenidos, entonces serán diferente la búsqueda de añadir valor.