Contents
Summary Tjemkes, Vos & Burgers, Strategic alliance management ....................................................... 1
Lecture 1................................................................................................................................................... 2
Chapter 1 Strategic alliance management ........................................................................................ 2
Chapter 2 Alliance strategy formulation........................................................................................... 3
Lecture 2................................................................................................................................................... 7
Chapter 3 Alliance partner selection ................................................................................................ 7
Chapter 4 Alliance negotiation ......................................................................................................... 9
Chapter 5 Alliance design................................................................................................................ 11
Chapter 6 Alliance management .................................................................................................... 14
Chapter 7 Alliance evaluation ......................................................................................................... 16
Chapter 8 Alliance termination ....................................................................................................... 18
Lecture 3................................................................................................................................................. 21
Chapter 10 Learning alliances ....................................................................................................... 21
Chapter 12 International alliances ................................................................................................ 22
Chapter 14 Cross-sector alliances ................................................................................................. 24
Chapter 19 Alliance capabilities .................................................................................................... 26
Lecture 6................................................................................................................................................. 28
Chapter 16 Alliance portfolios ...................................................................................................... 28
Chapter 17 Alliance networks ....................................................................................................... 30
,Lecture 1
Chapter 1 Strategic alliance management
Definition: a voluntary, long-term, contractual relationship between two or more autonomous and
independent organizations, designed to achieve mutual and individual objectives by sharing and/or
creating resources.
Advantages and disadvantages of alliances (table 2, p 5)
Advantages Disadvantages
Access to resources Loss of proprietary information
Economies of scale Loss of flexibility (in choosing other partners)
Risk and cost sharing Loss of decision autonomy
Access to a (foreign) market Risk of becoming dependent
Learning Financial and organizational risk
Speed to market Management complexities
Reputation Antitrust implications
Neutralizing or blocking competitors Learning barriers
Assessing acquisition partner Long-term viability (premature termination)
Flexibility (less hierarchy and regulation)
- Alliance failure (24 – 70 per cent) due to lack of understanding
o Focus on day-to-day instead of strategy and design
o Diverging firm characteristics
o Unique alliance contexts such as learning alliances
o Neglect of alliance capability creation
o Firms should deal systematically with these issues
Framework (fig 1.2, p 11)
- Alliance development stages (fig 1.1, p 9, cyclical approach such that the seven stages remain
interlinked through learning and adaptation)
o Alliance strategy formulation
o Alliance partner selection
o Alliance negotiation
o Alliance design
o Alliance management
o Alliance evaluation
o Alliance termination
- Unique decision-making situations
o Alliance objectives and management challenges
Supplier alliances
Learning alliances
Co-branding alliances
o Partner characteristics
International alliances
Asymmetrical alliances
, Cross-sector alliances
Multi-partner alliances
o Alliance context
Alliance portfolios
Alliance networks
Alliance co-evolution
- Alliance capabilities
- Strategic alliance management: science and art (experience, expertise, and creativity are
critical to resolve the tensions)
o Cooperative versus competitive
o Economic versus social
o Deliberate versus emergent
Chapter 2 Alliance strategy formulation
Governance mode decisions, procurement of desired resources (table 2.1, p 14)
- Make (hierarchy)
o Internalize activities and create synergies
o Higher bureaucracy and reduced flexibility
- Buy (market)
o No need for integration
o Potential for opportunistic behavior and misuse of power
- Ally (hybrid)
o Some degree of control, but no internalization
o Speed and flexibility in obtaining access and exploiting complementary resources
o Shared investments, thus reduced risk
o However, risk of increased competition
o Difficult to integrate learning
o Long-term viability is questionable
- Joint ventures, license agreements, etc.
Governance mode rationales (theoretical perspectives, table 2.2, p 24)
- Transaction costs economics (TCE)
o Ex-ante (drafting, negotiating, and safeguarding a contractual agreement
o Ex-post (repairing misalignments and bonding)
o Two assumptions that drive TC higher
Opportunism
Bounded rationality (unpredictability)
o Three exchange conditions that drive TC higher
Frequency (number of exchanges)
Asset specificity (value is lost when relationship ends)
Uncertainty
o Low TC calls for market exchange (external governance)
o High TC calls for hierarchical (internal) governance
o Mixed TC calls for a hybrid mode (alliance)