Identifying intraorganisational and interorganisational alliance conflicts—A longitudinal study of an alliance pilot project in the high technology industry (original) (raw)

Managing Alliance Relationships: Key Challenges in the Early Stages of Collaboration

Social Science Research Network, 2002

Recent surveys indicate that executives of technology companies consider strategic alliances to be central to their competitive strategies. Yet the barriers to successful alliances are formidable. In many instances, these barriers develop in the early stages of an alliance. This study identifies and analyzes the types of challenges that companies face in the start-up phase of their alliances. It is based on a survey and interviews with executives in the Canadian high technology industry. The study finds that the principal challenges in the first year of an alliance relate to relationship issues between the partners. It suggests stronger attention to these issues in the design and implementation of an alliance. The paper concludes with guidelines to build and sustain effective working relationships between partners.

Interorganizational cooperation: a new view of strategic alliances

Industrial Marketing Management, 2002

Looking at the rate at which organizations/firms are entering into strategic alliances these days, one can understand and/or appreciate the increased research in the area of strategic alliances. The tremendous amount of research on this type of interorganizational cooperation, more or less, have one thing in common. Thus, all seek to increase our knowledge and/or understanding of the potentialities, as well as the challenges inherent in the formation of strategic alliances. What is missing in the existing literature on strategic alliances is an emphasis on the importance of the interacting parties' (i.e., parties in any strategic alliance) interconnected exchange relationships with third parties (i.e., actors who are not officially regarded as partners in an alliance). There is a lack of empirical studies on the nature of and the extent to which networks (third parties) may affect and be affected by the achievement of goals pursued by some focal strategic alliance partners. The paper presents case studies that shed light on this issue. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to deepen our understanding of the relevance of third parties in a strategic alliance formed between specific focal actors. One important conclusion of the study is that the achievement of the focal actors' goals is affected, in large, by third parties. D

Performance of alliances: formative stages and changing organizational and environmental influences

R and D Management, 1999

There is near unanimous agreement that the performance of alliances usually falls short of expectations. Studies have identified several generic reasons for poor performance: inadequate communication, lack of trust, insufficient complementarity of resources, inappropriate organizational structures and processes, and so on. While we broadly agree with these, knowledge of these self-evident reasons does not seem to have turned the tide of bad news in any way. We show in this paper that it is important to unpack a broad set of antecedent variables, including the ones identified above, and to track them over the crucial formative stages of an alliance. Based on our interviews with 24 senior and middle level managers and professionals of a focal company about 10 of its major alliances, we identify the following four formative stages of an alliance: (1) Recognition, (2) Research, (3) Relationship Setup , and (4) Ramp up. We show that the primary predictors of success across these stages are not identical, nor their effect uniform. Further, proper completion of all the preceding stages is essential for the success of subsequent stages. We finally show that the compaction of the various successful stages, in particular of the Ramp-Up stage, is one of the best predictors of overall success of an alliance.

Strategic alliances in perspective: A management process and research questions

Southwestern Marketing Association Conference, 1994

Growing competitive intensity is forcing many companies to share their resources and expertise via strategic alliances. Discussed here are a comprehensive framework of strategic alliance formation, a situational approach to strategic alliances, and some suggestions for future research on strategic alliances.

Process issues in alliance management: A panel discussion

1999

The purpose in this series of papers is to examine different perspectives on the evolution of the process of collaboration and the management challenges therein by focusing on a single case experience. The literature on alliance and collaboration has grown immensely in the last few years. Much attention has been given to the economic rationale for intermediate organizational forms, the so-called "swollen middle" that lies between market and hierarchical solutions, and to the conditions under which such structures are optimal . More recently, there has been a virtual explosion in the treatment of the managerial challenges involved in inter-firm collaboration, ranging from issues of negotiation and conflict resolution to the role of strategic intent or prior experience, as well as numerous attempts to conceptualize and measure that most ephemeral and abused concept, trust (1).

Strategic alliances and models of collaboration

Management Decision, 2005

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to engage in a comprehensive review of the research on strategic alliances in the last decade.Design/methodology/approachAfter presenting a typology of diverse alliance governance forms, reviews recent analyses of alliance formation, implementation management, and performance outcomes of collaborative activities.FindingsStrategic alliances developed and propagated as formalized interorganizational relationships. These cooperative arrangements represent new organizational formation that seeks to achieve organizational objectives better through collaboration than through competition.Practical implicationsThe paper provides future research directions on partner selection, networks patterns and processes, understanding the integration in alliances through fusion, fission, and how to manage developmental dynamics.Originality/valueConcludes with some future directions for theory construction and empirical research.

Alliance management: a view from the past and a look to the future

Journal of Management studies, 1998

The literature on strategic alliances has focused mainly on issues related to alliance formation and the reasons why ®rms form these partnerships. Yet the large number of failures would suggest that there exists a gap between an understanding of alliance formation and the practice of alliance management. The purpose of this paper is to narrow that gap. We begin with a review of the extant state-ofknowledge and then discuss areas in which further insight can be gained. More speci®cally, the remainder of the paper focuses on issues related to managing alliances over time and the role of the alliance manager, a linch-pin in the alliance management process.