A Dependence-Trust Modelm of Export Alliance Performance in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Abstract

This paper focuses on the export performance of US environmental technology (EnviroTech) firms, which are predominantly small and medium enterprises (SMEs). We conceptualize and empirically test a model of perceived export performance contingent upon the perceived effectiveness of host country partner (HCP) alliances, dependence, and trust in the HCP. We find that US SME EnviroTech firms contemplating exports need two critical ingredients for success. First, they must forge close, cooperative, long-term strategic alliances with HCPs for mutual benefit. And second, they must pay specific attention to building trust in the HCP in order to achieve greater success with the strategic alliance and exports. Though dependence on a host country partner increases the vulnerability of the exporter and detracts from an effective alliance, trust is the antidote that can neutralize the negative impact of dependence.     

Strategies as Discursive Constructions: The Case of Airline Alliances

ABSTRACT In this paper, we argue that by examining the discursive elements in strategy talk we can contribute to our understanding of the myriad of micro‐processes and practices that make up strategies. We focus on airline alliances as a particularly illustrative case. Based on a critical discourse analysis of an extensive material of strategy talk on airline alliances, we point to five types of discursive practices that characterize strategizing in this context in 1995–2000: (1) problematization of traditional strategies; (2) rationalization, objectification and factualization of alliance benefits; (3) fixation of ambiguous independence concerns; (4) reframing of cooperation problems as ‘implementation’ issues; and (5) naturalization of alliance strategies. While we want to emphasize the context‐specificity of these practices, we claim that similar types of discursive practices are also likely to be an inherent part of strategizing in other settings.     

A Knowledge Accessing Theory of Strategic Alliances

ABSTRACT The emerging knowledge‐based view of the firm offers new insight into the causes and management of interfirm alliances. However, the development of an effective knowledge‐based theory of alliance formation has been inhibited by a simplistic view of alliances as vehicles for organizational learning in which strategic alliances have presumed to be motivated by firms’ desire to acquire knowledge from one another. We argue that the primary advantage of alliances over both firms and markets is in accessing rather than acquiring knowledge. Building upon the distinction between the knowledge generation (‘exploration’) and knowledge application (‘exploitation’), we show that alliances contribute to the efficiency in the application of knowledge; first, by improving the efficiency with which knowledge is integrated into the production of complex goods and services, and second, by increasing the efficiency with which knowledge is utilized. These static efficiency advantages of alliances are enhanced where there is uncertainty over future knowledge requirements and where new products offer early‐mover advantages. Compared with alternative learning‐based approaches to alliance formation, our proposed knowledge‐accessing theory of alliances offers the advantages of greater theoretical rigour and consistency with general trends in alliance activity and corporate strategy.     

基于战略意图的战略联盟绩效评价指标体系研究

目前理论界对于企业战略联盟绩效评价的研究,大多数都是使用单纯的财务绩效指标对联盟的绩效进行评价。本文提出,联盟的绩效评价首先应当从组成联盟的企业的各自角度出发。其次由于不同的战略联盟的战略意图相差迥异,应当从战略联盟建立的战略意图出发,来设计评价战略联盟绩效的指标体系。首先对战略联盟各种战略意图作了一个系统的分析,然后提出一套基于战略意图的联盟绩效的评价指标体系,并给出了一种定量评价方法。     

The Impact of Strategic Alliances on the Hospitality and Travel Industry Stakeholders' Quality of Life

ABSTRACT

This study reports about the evolution of strategic alliances in the hospitality and travel industry. The impact of strategic alliances on hospitality and travel industry stakeholders' quality of life will be explored. Two real life cases will be presented and analyzed in order to understand the effect of alliances on quality of life.     

企业战略联盟博弈策略选择分析

战略联盟可分为两企业战略联盟和多企业战略联盟两种形式。合作战略将是两企业战略联盟博弈的最终选择。多企业战略联盟的最终策略选择将因收益结构的不同而不同。     

Corporate Entrepreneurship Activities through Strategic Alliances: A Resource‐Based Approach toward Competitive Advantage*

abstract Corporate entrepreneurship (CE) activities may significantly benefit from interfirm strategic alliances, although such benefits have not been sufficiently examined in the literature. In this paper, a resource‐based framework is presented to examine how strategic alliances offer entrepreneurial firms needed resources that may not otherwise be available. We argue that CE activities are likely to lead to resource gaps. We compare various options to fill resource gaps, and identify the pros and cons of the alliance approach. We then discuss the resource conditions that provide competitive advantage for a firm, if alliances are properly used to help implement CE. Finally, we examine how different types of alliance (e.g. joint ventures, R&D alliances, and learning alliances) facilitate various CE activities, including innovation, corporate venturing, and strategic renewal.     

The Decision to Persist with Underperforming Alliances: The Role of Trust and Control

abstract We draw on theories of persistence to develop a model of alliance managers' decisions towards persisting in underperforming alliances based on their concomitant consideration of the control and trust in those alliances. We test the model using experimental data based on 2,816 decisions nested within 88 alliance managers. We find that output, behavioural and social control, competence and goodwill trust, and interactions between trust and control variables significantly explain alliance managers' decisions to persist in underperforming alliances. We discuss the implications of these findings for the control, trust and strategic alliance literatures.     

In search of alliance-level relational capabilities: Balancing innovation value creation and appropriability in R&D alliances

In order to advance our knowledge of alliance-level relational capabilities, this paper investigates how searching across different knowledge domains affects both innovation value creation and appropriability in R&D alliances. Focusing on the alliance level of analysis, we advance that, in R&D strategic alliances, search span has a curvilinear (inverted U-shape) relationship with value creation and a positive relationship with value appropriability. Our analysis on a sample of 1515 interfirm dyadic R&D alliances confirms these hypotheses. We find that, after a threshold level of search span, joint value creation decreases. Conversely, the allied firms’ ability to appropriate the value of their jointly developed inventions grows exponentially as the alliance search span increases. Thus, value creation and appropriability may have conflicting exigencies. We argue that firms involved in R&D strategic alliances should develop the interorganizational relational capability to jointly manage the process of search that occurs at the interorganizational level, and specifically the span of their search, in ways that balance the needs of value creation and appropriability.     

The Dynamics of Alliance Conditions in the Alliance Development Process

One of the key issues in understanding the developmental processes of strategic alliances is how the alliance conditions change over the different stages of alliance development. A related question concerns the nature of the co-evolutionary dynamics of alliances in terms of their constituent partner firms. In this article we propose an integrated process model of alliances that is based on alliance conditions, allianc developmental stages, and an alliance system comprising co-evolutionary elements. We suggest that alliance conditions, or the key characteristics of an alliance at any given moment, link the alliance environment (firm characteristics) and the alliance development process. We also explore how specific patterns of alliance conditions have differential impacts on the interactive elements of the alliance co-evolutionary system.     

Managing Competing Institutional Logics in Public–Private Joint Ventures

Abstract

Cross-sector inter-organizational partnerships, alliances and networks have become extremely popular. Yet, we may expect competing societal-level institutional logics to play an important role in cross-sector alliances, hence making their management central to alliance success. This article responds to the general research question: How do participants of public–private joint ventures manage competing institutional logics? Based on in-depth interviews we empirically characterize two competing logics in a cross-sector collaborative and identify two practices used to cope with them.     

企业战略联盟伙伴选择的原则标准及方法

企业战略联盟目前在全球范围内蓬勃兴起。越来越多的企业将其作为获得竞争优势、促进技术创新、分散经营风险、降低经营成本的重要战略。尽管战略联盟受到企业界的青睐,然而约有一半的联盟最终失败,其中一个重要的原因是联盟伙伴选择错误。选择正确的合作伙伴是建立战略联盟时不容忽视的重要环节。本文分析了企业战略联盟伙伴选择中存在的问题,提出了战略联盟伙伴选择的原则、步骤、标准,并提出企业科学的伙伴选择指标和选择方法一层次分析法来确立企业战略联盟伙伴优化选择模型。     

Organizational Legitimacy and the Strategic Bridging Ability of Green Alliances

Alliances with environmental non‐governmental organizations may benefit multinational corporations (MNCs) operating in developing countries where uncertain socio‐cultural and institutional conditions present higher investment risks. Such ‘green alliances’ can provide strategic bridging services by interceding between MNCs and distant, yet important, stakeholders. From an institutional perspective, strategic bridging success may depend on stakeholder perceptions of alliance legitimacy. In this study the relationship between alliance legitimacy and strategic bridging ability is explored through the case of the Turtle Village Trust in Trinidad and Tobago. Findings suggest that bridging success occurs when organizational legitimacy peaks; that new alliance partners temporarily weaken legitimacy; and bridging with every new targeted stakeholder requires continued acquisition of legitimacy based on their respective values. MNC decisions to form alliances that bridge targeted stakeholders on their behalf should therefore consider the potential of the alliance to acquire and accumulate organizational legitimacy without which strategic bridging efforts may be futile. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

供应链战略联盟研究

供应链战略联盟作为在供应链管理和战略联盟基础上兴起的新的企业合作形式,受到越来越多的关注和应用.本文对供应链战略联盟的产生、概念、特点和作用进行了系统的研究,并针对我国企业的实际,分析了在实施中存在的困难,又针对这些问题提出了相应的对策,以期对企业的实践应用提供一定的指导意义,并为理论界对供应链战略联盟的深入研究提供一定的借鉴作用.     

联盟合作关系中的信任及其规制效果的理论分析

战略联盟合作伙伴之间都坚持诚信并不是一个均衡解,任何一方的不守信都将触发战略联盟的非合作行为,并导致战略联盟失败,因而强调基于信任的联盟合作关系的动机性治理并不是可靠的机制,它不能准确显示联盟成员的真实守信水平,也忽视了战略联盟的资产投入和经济利益的影响。     

公司战略联盟利益分配机制模糊评价研究

公司战略联盟是一种重要的组织创新形式,公司战略联盟因利益而起,联盟的利益分配机制是公司战略联盟有效运营的关键所在。采用模糊数学的方法构建了联盟利益分配机制评价的指标体系,说明了利益分配机制评价的步骤,并指出了评价时应注意的问题。     

Alliance Management: A View from the Past and a Look to the Future

The literature on strategic alliances has focused mainly on issues related to alliance formation and the reasons why firms 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-of-knowledge and then discuss areas in which further insight can be gained. More specifically, 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.     

Sampling and Selection Bias in International Collaborative Alliance Research

Abstract

This paper argues that our understanding of international collaborative alliances is limited by selection bias. Bias in data sets developed both from published announcements of alliance formation and in more narrowly focused studies are discussed. The results of an empirical test of geographic bias are reported.     

Strategic alliance team diversity,coordination, and effectiveness

Drawing upon literatures on strategic alliances, teams, and diversity, we propose that strategic alliance team diversity warrants further examination. We suggest that strategic alliance team coordination moderates the relationship between strategic alliance team diversity and effectiveness. Specifically, we hypothesize that coordination strengthens the negative relationship between observable diversity characteristics of nationality and gender and team effectiveness. We also argue that coordination strengthens the positive relationship between nonobservable diversity characteristic of functional background and team effectiveness. Results from 109 team members, 44 team leaders, and 34 alliance executives involved with 44 strategic alliance teams in 15 firms partially support our hypotheses.     

Development of hybrid fuzzy multi-criteria decision approach to evaluate key factors for marketing strategic alliance formation based on multiple theories

This study integrates three methods for evaluating the interaction and importance of key factors, while mapping the differences between development and maintenance stages during the formation of marketing strategic alliances in the telecommunications industry. A systematic, quantitative, integrated measurement is proposed to evaluate the importance of factors. Moreover, it provides a holistic picture of similarities and differences across stages for establishing marketing strategic alliance relationships. The factors' evaluation results show that the maintenance stage is critical for the relationship as it relates to sustaining the collaboration and can determine whether a marketing strategic alliance will continue or terminate.