I've known for a long time that culture influences innovation, but I haven't thought much about how partnerships enable it. This fascinating article describes how. I've quoted here the part about how our culture overlooks partnership in favor of 'sole sources.'

Salon.com: Two is the magic number: a new science of creativity, 2010-Sep-14, by Joshua Wolf Shenk

The ultimate triumph of the idea of individualism is that it's not really seen as an idea at all. It has seeped into our mental groundwater. Basic descriptions of inter-relatedness—enabling, co-dependency—are headlines for dysfunction. The Oxford American Dictionary defines individualism as, first, "the habit or principle of being independent and self-reliant" and, second, as "a social theory favoring freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control." This lopsided contrast of "freedom" vs. "state control" is telling.