Affects of alliance entrepreneurship on common vision,alliance capability and alliance performance

The underlying theoretical argument of our study concerns that value from alliance knowledge may be created not only through exploitation and augmentation of the existing organizational knowledge base, but more through entrepreneurial actions in accessing and integrating key strategic resources that exist in the alliance relationship. In this view, our study investigates the role of alliance entrepreneurship with its effects on common vision, alliance capability and alliance performance in penetrating into the foreign markets. This study develops and empirically tests a model that specifically focuses on (1) to what extent alliance entrepreneurship relates to developing a common vision between alliance and organizational knowledge, (2) to what extent alliance entrepreneurship relates to the alliance capability and alliance performance respectively, and (3) to what extent barriers to alliance knowledge acquisition and learning orientation moderate the relationship between alliance entrepreneurship and alliance capability.Based on a sample of 100 ICT firms, findings of our study reveal a positive and significant affect of alliance entrepreneurship on common vision, alliance capability and alliance performance. However, more significant support is received for the relation between alliance entrepreneurship and alliance capability through moderating interaction effects of barriers to alliance knowledge acquisition and firm level learning orientation.     

Alliance type,alliance experience and alliance management capability in high-technology ventures

We investigate a high-technology venture's alliance management capability. Thus, we develop a model that links differential demands of alliance type and the benefits of alliance experience to an observable outcome from a firm's alliance management capability. We test our model on a sample of 2226 R&D alliances entered into by 325 global biotechnology firms. We find that alliance type and alliance experience moderate the relationship between a high-technology venture's R&D alliances and its new product development. These results provide empirical evidence for the existence of an alliance management capability and its heterogeneous distribution across firms.     

连锁超市的战略联盟

零售业的竞争加剧,无疑使倒闭与联盟成为近几年来国内外超市行业的两大主题.随着经济全球化浪潮的不断发展,中国加入WTO的临近,国外大型连锁超市集团纷纷抢滩中国市场,国内超市企业感到危机和实力的悬殊.同时,超市行业也开始分化,一些效益不好的超市倒闭、资产重组、加盟连锁超市,效益好的超市扩大规模、增加门店数量、寻求战略联盟.     

The financing of alliance entrepreneurship

It is popular nowadays for entrepreneurial firms to advance their entrepreneurship outside their boundaries through alliances. This paper studies how the financing of entrepreneurship changes in strategic alliances. We model a financially constrained entrepreneur and a deep-pocket incumbent developing an innovative product through a strategic alliance, which generates externalities on the incumbent. We find that i) in contrast to traditional theories, the entrepreneur's financial constraint can be tightened by an increase in his endowment; ii) an outside investor is introduced as a third party to deal with the free-riding agency problem; and iii) the externalities have a significant effect on the design of financial claims in the alliance contract, and the incentive-compatible financial instruments are consistent with empirical observations.     

Managing international strategic alliance relationships

The objective of this study is to investigate the development of international strategic alliances (ISAs) and to identify the important factors for each phase of an alliance relationship. We have developed a framework about the process development of alliances that is based on an extensive literature study. The framework is used to study and analyze three cases of ISAs. The findings and conclusions are presented in a manner that can help managers to recognize the stages they have to go through and, more important, to be aware of the determinant variables in each stage of an alliance life cycle. This study found that the continuity of an alliance relationship is highly dependent on how partners manage their operational phase. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Consumer evaluation of brand alliance signals

A consistent finding in brand‐alliance research is that a well‐known, reputable brand ally improves consumers' evaluation of an unknown brand. The authors contribute to this research by examining the effects of a brand ally at different levels of cognitive elaboration and message argument strength. Results suggest that the brand ally serves as an endorser of the primary brand in two key ways. When cognitive elaboration is low and the ad contains strong arguments, the ally serves as an endorser. On the other hand, the presence of a reputable ally is an information cue when cognitive elaboration is high and the ad contains weak arguments. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Dangdang, Gome may form e-commerce alliance

According to China Daily on February 14,e-commerce China Dangdang Inc,a major Chinese online retailer,may join hands with Gome Electrical Appliances Holding Ltd,the country's second-biggest electronics retailer,to fend off rising competition from rival 360buy.com.     

Develop and nurture an international alliance capability

Firms increasingly enter into alliances when expanding into international markets and market segments. Unfortunately, many of these alliances fail because managers are overconfident and unprepared for the diverse and complex contingencies they encounter. Growing research suggests that developing an alliance capability function improves alliance performance. We first identify common types of problems and opportunities that arise from alliance design to alliance dissolution. With this understanding, we then specify the alliance capabilities that must be developed to deal with these contingencies. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Do retail alliances enhance customer experience? Examining the relationship between alliance value and customer satisfaction with the alliance

Abstract

This article evaluates the role of customers in the alliance equation. Using a combination of survey and experimental data, we investigate the role of value offered by retail alliances on customer satisfaction with the alliance. We find that customer value plays a mediating role in the relationship between customer experience with the alliance and customer satisfaction with the alliance. Results also show that the nature of this relationship differs based on the type of value offered by the alliance. Cognitive processing plays a more significant role when the alliance is of a functional nature, while affect plays a more significant role when the retail alliance is of a hedonic nature.     

五方合力 共享共赢——云贵川渝桂“合力联盟”正式成立

2009年10月29日,＂联合的力量——云贵川渝桂‘合力联盟’成立盛典＂在广西南宁荔园山庄举行,这是中国电视广告史上一个具有里程碑意义的日子,它标志着由云南电视台、贵州电视台、四川电视台、重庆电视台、广西电视台五家优势电视媒体强强联手组成的“合力联盟”正式成立。     

电视与网络的合纵连横——“安徽电视台与搜狐公司高层对话”纪实

11月19日，安徽电视台与搜狐公司高层对话暨战略签约新闻发布会在北京举行，宣布双方将结成友好的战略合作伙伴关系，在品牌推广、内容服务、技术开发、广告经营以及人才交流等方面开展全面深入的合作。     

基于博弈的战略联盟分析

随着世界经济一体化的发展,追求个体利益的形式面临着极大的挑战,而互利共赢战略以经济全球化时代为实施背景,以深化国内经济体制改革为实现基础,以开展与世界各国的经济合作为实践途径正在逐渐成为经济发展的主流。而企业战略联盟的出现正是时代发展的产物,它是互惠共赢的最典型的体现方式。本文通过博弈的方法,对战略联盟进行分析,并通过Cournot模型,分析战略联盟能给企业带来的利益,从而说明战略联盟实现互惠的机制。     

Is brand alliance always beneficial to firms?

In this research, we develop a fresh analytical model to examine the impact of brand quality on the firms’ performances when two firms selling substitute products form a brand alliance. Our results indicate that when two products have equal brand qualities, brand alliance is always a beneficial strategy for two firms to employ. However, when two products have different brand qualities, brand quality differential shows a positive relationship with the profit of the firm with the low-quality brand but demonstrates a negative relationship with the profit of the firm with the high-quality brand in the brand alliance. Our results also show that brand quality differential has a greater effect on the profit of the firm with the high-quality brand than on that of the firm with the low-quality brand. In addition, we find that brand alliance becomes much more valuable to the firm with the high-quality brand when the brand quality differential decreases, but the value of brand alliance has a concave relationship with the profit of the firm with the low-quality brand when the brand quality differential increases.     

Determining international strategic alliance performance: A multidimensional approach

This paper considers the relationship between subjective, multidimensional measures of international strategic alliance (ISA) performance and predictors of success both before the alliance is formed (pre-alliance formation factors) and during the operation of the alliance (post-alliance formation factors). The empirical study, based on a web-survey, investigates a sample of Danish partner firms engaged in 48 equity joint ventures and 70 non-equity joint ventures with partners from around the world. A multi-dimensional operationalization of alliance performance measurement is utilized in order to capture both process and outcome aspects of alliance performance. The results show a significant relationship between alliance performance and host country risk as well as partner reputation preceding alliance formation. During the operation of the alliance, relationships between collaborative know-how, trust, protectiveness, complementarity, cultural distance and alliance performance were found.     

Epistemic communities and the global alliance against tobacco marketing

The World Health Organization's (WHO's) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is a major blow to the worldwide expansion strategies and marketing practices of transnational tobacco companies. As expected, the industry vehemently opposed the treaty, lobbying instead for voluntary agreements and regulation by the market. However, in spite of bitter and persistent opposition by the tobacco industry, the FCTC was adopted by WHO. If the tobacco industry “lost” its battle to prevent FCTC from being institutionalized, who “won” and how? Our research suggests that the efforts of the epistemic community—a like‐minded network of professionals whose authoritative claim to consensual knowledge provides them with a unique source of power in public policy decision making—won the battle by being able to better convince the decision makers as to the needs of the FCTC by relying on, and successfully disseminating, its knowledge, expertise, and ideas. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Measures of strategic alliance performance,classified and assessed

Over the last three decades, strategic alliance performance has been an important research topic within the international business and management fields. Researchers have investigated a number of factors explaining performance but often find diverging results. Scholars have suggested that one reason may be that different performance measures are used as the dependent variable. But which differences exist and how can they matter? Against this backdrop, the present study makes three main contributions. First, we identify dimensions that illustrate differences and similarities between performance measures and provide a simple yet comprehensive classification of the different performance measures used in 167 empirical studies in the literature. Second, we suggest how differences in performance measures may influence construct validity under different circumstances. Third, we show that the differences have empirical implications for the results researchers get when using the measures. The study implications serve to improve researchers’ ability to choose performance measures that are appropriate in a given situation and to help them assess the influence the choice of performance measure may have on tests of hypotheses regarding antecedents’ influence on performance.     

Functional and contextual dimensions of INVs’ alliance partner selection

Prior research on the selection of international alliance partners calls for investigation of the potential specificity of selection criteria for evaluating partners for alliances with different objectives or functions. The present study responds to this need and contributes to the development of the field of international entrepreneurship by examining the relation between the alliance function and the criteria chosen. We studied three alliance functions: R&D, production, and marketing. Second, for each alliance function, we analyzed the criteria selected within two contexts: developing countries and those that consider emerging markets in their partner choice set. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 25 executives from international new ventures (INVs) in two major North American biotechnology clusters, representing 239 alliances; 65.7 % of these were signed with international partners. Results indicate that, aside from compatibility/complementarity of resources (R&D and production alliances), all criteria used within a single function are unique to that function. Furthermore, these criteria differ somewhat when the potential partners considered by a firm include those from both emerging and developed markets, compared with firms that limit potential partners to those in developed market contexts. Finally, the study reveals that respondent firms integrate country, industry, and market attractiveness factors with partner selection criteria for marketing alliances. This suggests that, for many firms, market choice and partner selection are not successive steps. The study’s originality lies in its focus on the relationship between alliance function and partner selection criteria used by INVs as well as within different contexts.