Partner‐diversity effects on alliance termination in the early stage of green alliance formation: Empirical evidence from carbon‐emission reduction projects in Latin America

Partner diversity is a key influencer in interorganizational alliances, and several empirical studies have shown that its outcomes are contingent on alliance‐specific factors. We extend this research as well as the growing literature on green alliances, in which partner diversity is uniquely high. Specifically, we examine partner‐diversity effects on alliance termination in the early stage of green alliance formation. We hypothesize that in this context, size disparity increases termination likelihood, whereas organizational variety and cultural separation have the opposite effect. To test our hypotheses, we use a sample of 366 alliance projects located in Latin America and submitted to the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism for evaluation, validation, and registration from 2004 to 2014. Our findings contribute to several research streams and provide practical guidance for successful formation of alliances focused on environmental protection.     

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.     

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.     

Moving to the Next Strategy Stage: Examining Firms' Awareness,Motivation and Capability Drivers in Environmental Alliances

Complementing extant studies on the antecedents of firms' environmental strategy, this article focuses on the trajectories of corporate engagement in proactive environmental alliances. Specifically, we build an awareness–motivation–capability framework and analyze factors that drive the move beyond incremental pollution prevention and facilitate firms' engagement in transformative, sustainable development strategies in their alliances. Based on 212 environmental alliance‐related observations, our test results indicate limited explanatory power of regulatory pressures, but highlight the role of firms' environmental networks to sharpen their awareness to engage in transformative alliances. Further, we elaborate on the nuances and boundary conditions of firms' risk‐taking propensity, industry concentration, financial capacity and especially prior sector‐spanning experiences as motivation and capability drivers. These insights contribute to the discourse on firms' environmental strategy and alliance formation by depicting how and to what extent environment‐specific and more general firm attributes predispose them to engage in transformative rather than incremental environmental projects. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

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.     

Horizontal alliances and the merger paradox

Mergers and alliances are two organizational forms which allow firms to combine complementary capabilities to realize strategic goals; they are, in many cases, strategic substitutes. Managerial decision‐makers, therefore, require a framework for choosing between the two strategies. This paper contributes to this decision‐making process by highlighting one advantage of alliances over mergers. Specifically, while the profitability of a cost‐reducing horizontal merger is diminished by the resulting expansion of non‐merging competitor(s), an alliance, where partners collaborate to reduce costs but sell their product independently, enables its partners to realize the benefits of merging but avoid the problem of strengthening competitors. A model is developed which demonstrates the profitability of establishing such an alliance compared to a merger. The implications of this strategy for antitrust review are briefly discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

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.     

Capabilities exchange through business interaction: An empirical investigation of a client–IT supplier relationship

This article focuses on the opportunities for capabilities exchange within a specific business-to-business context: the relationship between a client and an information technology (IT) supplier. Research on the features of this type of relationship, although fairly extensive, has focused on IT implementation issues, relationship between IT resources, organisation performance and competitive advantage, IT outsourcing relationships and definition of IT capabilities. However, our understanding of the context where IT capabilities are exchanged within consultancy projects and how this exchange emerges is rather limited. The paper aims to bridge this gap by adopting the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) group's interaction approach as a tool for conducting an in-depth investigation of a case study to analyse the context, the parties and the interactions through which IT capabilities are exchanged. The research reveals that interpersonal relationships between users and consultants within consultancy projects are crucial to establish a long-lasting and stable relationship. As a result, during consultancy projects IT-related resources, in the form of IT physical infrastructures, human IT resources and IT intangible resources are exchanged and combined to create or enhance IT capabilities. Furthermore, we also claim that the success of such an exchange depends very much on the degree of social and interpersonal exchange.     

Evaluations of branding alliances between non‐profit and commercial brand partners: the transfer of affect

• There is growing interest in the trend towards co‐branding alliances between non‐profit and commercial entities,which are undertaken by these organisations to transfer associations and affect between each brand partner. Certainly, it makes sense that commercial entities want to gain more from their brands and that non‐profits want secured funding, however, in the same way that the joining of two brands can be beneficial, it can also bring with it major risks when the brand alliance is not well received and evaluations of the alliance are not favourable.
• This research supports the notion that both commercial entities and non‐profit organisations can benefit from a branding alliance, however, an understanding of how these brand alliances are evaluated is important. This research investigates evaluations of brand alliances and the resulting spillover effects for original brand partners that result from brand alliances.
• This research provides empirical support relating to reactions to brand alliances between a non‐profit organisation and a commercial business in terms of how original brand attitudes, familiarity of original brands and perceived brand fit impact on evaluations. While collaboration is important and has potential benefits for each partner—they rest on partner selection and fit between alliance partners. Managerial implications and future research directions are also provided.

Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Do Firms Learn from Alliance Terminations? An Empirical Examination

In this paper, drawing from the learning from failure perspective, we argue that firms that have experienced prior terminations are less likely to have their future alliance terminated. Our key argument is that prior terminations will enable firms to design better alliances and adopt more appropriate alliance management strategies to avoid future terminations. We also suggest a more nuanced view of learning by hypothesizing that termination experience will mediate the relationship between alliance formation experience and likelihood of termination. We used the case–control methodology to select a sample of 198 alliances (consisting of 99 terminations and an equal number of surviving alliances) from the global biotechnology industry, and deployed logistic regression analysis to test the hypotheses in a multivariate setting. Our analysis strongly supports both hypotheses.     

New value partnerships: the lessons of Denny's/Save the Children partnership for building high‐yielding cross‐sector alliances

While business and nonprofit organisations have long used alliances within their own sectors to address specific needs, increasingly they are turning to cross‐sector partnerships that benefit both parties while they serve the common good. In the last decade, marketing alliances between businesses and social sector organisations have become increasingly common as ways for companies to achieve business objectives and for social sector organisations to raise their visibility and attract new resources. The alliance between Denny's and Save the Children provides an example of a noteworthy marketing partnership that shows how a cross‐sector alliance can assist a company with a damaged public image to build a new public identity while enabling an international nonprofit organisation to create an ambitious programme for US children. As a new value partnership, a long‐term, high yielding alliance between businesses and social sector organisations, this relationship is characterised by several elements: communication, opportunity, mutuality, multiple levels, open‐endedness, and new value, forming the acronym COMMON. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications     

The Influence of Technological Knowledge Base and Organizational Structure on Technology Collaboration

This study investigates how an incumbent company's internal characteristics influence its propensity to form learning alliances. A firm may be reluctant to enter a research alliance when it has deep knowledge in a certain technological field due to concerns about knowledge leakage and the low possibility of being able to learn much from collaboration. On the contrary, when the firm has a broad knowledge base, it may have high propensity to enter alliances due to more self‐confidence in its ability to learn fast from partners. In addition, we argue that when a firm concentrates its R&D at a central location, this neutralizes the positive and negative influences of the two knowledge base features on alliance formation. We tested and found support for the hypotheses using a database of 1550 alliances undertaken by 78 large incumbent pharmaceutical, chemical, and agro‐food companies active in the biotechnology sector during 1993–2002.     

Cooperation Costs,Governance Choice and Alliance Evolution*

abstract While researchers in alliance management have identified the duality of cooperation and control within alliances, comparative governance scholars have not yet developed a coherent framework for relating the costs of cooperation to governance choices. This paper proposes a theory of cooperation costs highlighting the importance of joint task complexity, interpartner diversity, equity and strategic implications on the perception of alliance value and the formation and evolution of hybrid governance structures. A tolerance frontier is used to predict conditions for alliance failure both ex ante and after formation, as well as conditions under which an alliance will evolve once formed. The framework is illustrated through an analysis of the initial structuring and subsequent changes in the NedCar alliance between Mitsubishi Motors and Volvo, and implications for further research are discussed.     

Firm and Group Influences on Venture Capital Firms’ Involvement in New Ventures

abstract Drawing on expectancy, equity, and collective effort theories, we argue that the level of involvement of individual firms in multifirm alliances depends on both individual firms’ self‐focused interests and factors stemming from the firms’ membership in the alliance group. We apply our theoretical arguments to the context of venture capital syndicates and test the hypotheses using data about 160 venture capital firms (VCFs) drawn from a survey instrument and a secondary data source. The results show that individual firms’ involvement in a multifirm alliance is somewhat dominated by group effects; specifically, financial stake relative to that of the group and the reputation of the other group members significantly influence the focal firm's involvement. However, focal firms’ involvement relates negatively to their own reputation. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research. Our results imply that firms in multiparty alliances pay attention to the characteristics of their alliance partnership to calibrate their own behaviour. In our specific setting, VCF involvement in syndicates depends more on relative syndicate characteristics than on the focal firm's absolute level of investment. Further, because reputation is negatively associated with involvement, entrepreneurs and potential syndicate entrants should ensure that they fully leverage VCF reputation to achieve their goals.     

The complementarity of IT and HRM capabilities for competitive performance: a configurational analysis of manufacturing and industrial service SMEs

ABSTRACT

Building on the resource-based view (RBV) perspective, we analyse the combined effects of two highly-valued organizational resources, namely information technology (IT) capabilities and human resource management (HRM) capabilities, on the competitive performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Three resource configurations are derived from data on 227 SMEs (121 from the manufacturing sector and 106 from the industrial services sector) through a cluster analysis. These resource configurations are labelled IT Capabilities-dominant Configuration (ITC), e-Business Capabilities-dominant Configuration (e-BC), and HRM Capabilities-dominant Configuration (HRC). This last configuration is the best-performing, followed by the e-BC, with the ITC as the worst-performing. The results also show that manufacturing and service firms are very unevenly distributed within HRC and ITC configurations, suggesting notable differences between the two sectors regarding their respective IT and non-IT capability-building. The fact that service SMEs are overwhelmingly represented (93%) in the worst-performing configuration and completely absent (0%) in the most effective configuration while displaying the strongest IT infrastructure capabilities confirms that the IT productivity paradox is aggravated in service SMEs and calls for further research on this issue.     

Alliance Capability as a Mediator Between Experience and Alliance Performance: An Empirical Investigation into the Alliance Capability Development Process*

abstract This study centres around the way in which firms can enhance alliance performance through the development of alliance capabilities. Whereas most research has focused on inter-firm antecedents of alliance performance, research on intra-firm antecedents pointing to prior experience and internal mechanisms to foster knowledge transfer has only recently emerged. As little is known about how firms develop alliance capabilities, this study aims to uncover how differences in sources of alliance capabilities explain performance heterogeneity. The data are derived from a detailed survey held among alliance managers and Vice-Presidents of 151 firms. The survey covers over 2600 alliances for the period 1997–2001. This study not only finds that alliance capabilities partially mediate between alliance experience and alliance performance, but also yields novel insights into the micro-level building blocks underlying the process of alliance capability development.     

The Influence of Top Management Team International Exposure on International Alliance Formation

abstract    This study examines the effect of top management team (TMT) international exposure on the formation of international alliances. We develop our arguments based on relational capital theory to suggest that top executives with international exposure are critical to firms' international alliance formation. Supporting this view, we find that TMT international exposure is positively associated with the formation of international alliances. Moreover, we find evidence to suggest that the effect of TMT international exposure on international alliance formation is more positive as the level of environmental uncertainty increases. We discuss implications and directions for future research.     

Dynamic Capabilities and Organizational Performance: A Meta‐Analytic Evaluation and Extension

We move the dynamic capabilities view (DCV) forward in two important ways by meta‐analysing prior empirical studies. First, we evaluate the two core theoretical tenets of the DCV: (1) Dynamic capabilities are positively related to performance, and (2) this relationship is stronger in industries with higher levels of technological dynamism. We find support for the former (r_c = 0.296) but not for the latter, though results suggest the existence of moderators. Second, we theorize and demonstrate empirically that higher‐order dynamic capabilities are more strongly related to performance than lower‐order dynamic capabilities, lower‐order dynamic capabilities partially mediate the relationship between higher‐order dynamic capabilities and performance, and dynamic capabilities contribute more to performance in developing economies than in developed economies. These findings illustrate how the nature of the dynamic capability and the economic context in which it is utilized shape its value, thus offering a more nuanced conceptualization of the dynamic capabilities‐performance relationship.     

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.