Alliance management: a view from the past and a look to the future (original) (raw)
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Alliance Management as Source of a Successful Strategy
In today's global environment, strategic alliances represent an important source of growth and competitive advantage; they allow firms to access new and critical resources and capabilities, to improve competitive position and rapidly to enter a new market In spite of the strategic importance of the alliances, they still exhibit a high failure rate; previous researches show that the half of the alliance formed end up as failure. The low success rate testifies firms' difficulties in managing their alliance relationships and in ensuring enough success from them. In global markets, firms exhibit heterogeneity in terms of the overall alliance success; some firms achieve success from their alliance and others fail. Although most companies have realized the importance of strategic alliances, only few of them have developed the needed capabilities to manage them with success. In recent years, empirical studies found that firms with greater alliance success are those ones with superior management capabilities, termed in literature as " alliance capabilities ". This study is based on the assumption that the heterogeneity in alliance success rate is due to heterogeneity in firms' level of management capabilities. Eli Lilly & Company's success in strategic alliances represents a clear example of company that understood the importance of developing an institutionalized approach of " alliance management " that improves the likelihood of alliance success.
Alliance Management as a Source of Competitive Advantage
Journal of Management, 2002
We examine the management of strategic alliances using the theoretical frames of transactions cost, social network theory and the resource-based view. Alliances must be effectively managed for their benefits to be realized. Effective alliance management begins with selecting the right partner. Furthermore, alliances must be managed to build social capital and knowledge. To maximize cooperation among the partners, a trust-based relationship must be developed. Therefore, we conclude that managing alliances is crucial for firms to gain competitive advantage and create value with strategic alliances.
STRATEGIC ALLIANCES: FROM SUCCES TO FAILURE
2009
Over the past few years, the strategic alliances had been increasingly common. The term "strategic alliance" can mean many different things, but the commonly used meaning entails a joint corporative effort by two or more companies working towards agreed upon goals.
Building Alliance Capability: Management Techniques for Superior Alliance Performance
Long Range Planning - LONG RANGE PLANN, 2003
Despite the fact that they represent a growing element of business strategy, alliances between organisations quite often result in failure. This is partly due to the fact that firms have not built up adequate capabilities to manage alliances. Special management techniques have to be implemented in order to strengthen the organisation’s alliance capability. This article evaluates a number of these techniques with regard to their impact on alliance success, and reports on a quantitative study on alliances and alliance-management techniques of 46 large companies to assess this impact.
Long Range Planning, 2003
Despite the fact that they represent a growing element of business strategy, alliances between organisations quite often result in failure. This is partly due to the fact that firms have not built up adequate capabilities to manage alliances. Special management techniques have to be implemented in order to strengthen the organisation's alliance capability. This article evaluates a number of these techniques with regard to their impact on alliance success, and reports on a quantitative study on alliances and alliance-management techniques of 46 large companies to assess this impact.
Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 2009
This article wants to respond to a number of critical questions about alliances. First of all 'Why alliances', than 'What is alliance management and how should it operate'; 'which is the role played by an alliance manager', "How should top performing managers act" and finally 'How to manage an alliance". Alliance success hinges on people issue-in particular, defining roles and responsibilities and creating the incentives to drive individual performance.
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.
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).
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.