Multinational strategic alliances: a manager's perspective

✍ Scribed by Robert J. Mockler

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 243 KB
• Volume: 6
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1086-1718
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1697(199711)6:7<391::aid-jsc325>3.0.co;2-d

✦ Synopsis

The article is based on ®eld interviews with strategic alliances and other competing companies in China during ®ve visits there, and during frequent visits to Russia and Europe between 1988 and 1996, as well as on other studies of multinational strategic alliances in China and elsewhere.

* The two or more ®rms that unite to pursue a set of agreed upon goals remain independent subsequent to the formation of the alliance. * The partner ®rms share the bene®ts of the alliance and control over the performance of assigned tasksÐperhaps the most distinctive characteristic of alliances and the one that makes them so dif®cult to manage. * The partner ®rms contribute on a continuing basis in one or more key strategic areas, for example technology, products and the like.

* First, countries like China required joint ventures for overseas companies to operate there.

* The alliance must add value, that is, it must be worth more to the company to enter an alliance than to go it alone. * The company must learn something from the alliance. * The company must protect competencies even while interacting with the alliance over a continuing period of time. * The ®rm must retain ¯exibility, and not be overly reliant on any one partner.