Costs of partner search and selection in strategic alliances

This study examines the costs associated with alliance partner search and selection as well as their antecedents. Based on transaction cost economics and the network perspective on inter-organizational relationships, the findings drawing on survey-based data from a sample of 83 firms in the German telecommunications industry reveal that partner search and selection costs are closely connected but differentially affected by task- and company-related factors. When firms must make alliance-specific investments, search and selection costs increase. A firm’s number of current alliances decreases search and selection costs, whereas neither alliance scope nor firm performance significantly affect them. Additional analyses show that alliance-specific investments especially increase search costs but do not affect selection costs, whereas a firm’s performance decreases search costs but does not reduce selection costs.     

资源互补对机会主义和战略联盟绩效的影响研究

20世纪80年代以来,全球战略联盟的数量激增,逐步成为企业的快速成长方式,但其失败率也非常高。本文以资源依赖理论和交易成本理论为基础,以中国企业为样本,从资源互补和机会主义的角度分析了合作与竞争对联盟绩效的影响。实证研究的结果表明,联盟中的资源互补能够提高联盟的财务绩效与创新,而机会主义则会负向影响财务绩效和创新。同时,适度的资源互补是有效遏制机会主义的手段,过高或过低的资源互补都会使联盟企业处于机会主义的风险之中,即资源互补和机会主义之间的关系呈倒U型的关系。     

航空公司战略联盟的经济动因分析

本文从经济学角度讨论航空公司战略联盟的动因,认为航空公司联盟旨在节约生产成本和交易成本。本文分析了航空公司战略联盟的网络经济性,基于交易成本经济学分析了航空公司联盟相对于市场而言对交易成本的节约。本文提出修正的威廉姆森启发式模型,并将其应用于分析和比较在国际航空运输市场中完整航空客运产品的实现方式。     

Strategic Alliance Temporalities and Partner Opportunism*

The troubling potential for opportunistic behaviour in strategic alliances is acknowledged in both research and practice, and yet the antecedents of such opportunism remain largely unexplored in the literature. In this article we suggest that the inherent temporalities of alliances play significant roles in partner opportunism. We propose a model of potential partner opportunism that assigns antecedent and contingent roles to the temporal horizons of alliances and the temporal orientations of the member firms. We introduce the notion of alliance horizons and suggest that they are constituted by the temporal orientations of the member firms and a number of common alliance formation factors. We also discuss how these alliance horizons in conjunction with the temporal orientations of member firms result in different levels of potential opportunism. Lastly, we develop a number of propositions to facilitate empirical research on the temporal contingencies of partner opportunism and indicate directions for further studies.     

How to govern business services exchanges: Contractual and relational issues

With firms concentrating on core competencies, more emphasis has been placed on outsourcing and dealing with external sourcing agents. This has led to a stronger academic focus on buyer–seller exchanges and the corresponding mechanisms for governing these exchanges. This paper gives an overview of previous research investigating the exchange governance phenomenon based on transaction cost theory or co‐operative interorganizational relationships. The results reveal that few research studies have investigated the overall picture of exchange governance, including both contractual and relational governance and taking into account antecedents as well as performance outcomes of the governance mechanisms involved. Moreover, despite the service‐dominant logic shift, limited attention is given to specific service characteristics and their impact on exchange governance. This paper attempts to meld economic and social related antecedents into a model with regard to exchange governance in business services settings. Contractual and relational governance issues and their impact on performance outcomes are also considered. The resulting model indicates that to govern business services exchanges efficiently, more emphasis should be placed on behavioral uncertainty, human and process asset specificity and contractual governance. The paper concludes by discussing several directions for future research.     

并购后高管变更、合法性与并购绩效——基于制度理论的视角

并购后的高管变更对于企业的并购绩效具有重要的影响,但目前的研究结论没有取得一致性。本文基于制度理论的视角引入合法性的概念,通过123份并购样本实证分析了并购后高管变更、合法性以及并购绩效之间的关系。研究结果显示:并购后高管变更与并购的外部合法性和内部合法性之间均存在显著的负相关;而外部合法性和内部合法性对于并购绩效具有显著的积极作用。本研究结论对于我国企业的并购后高管变更决策以及如何提升并购绩效具有理论指导意义。     

竞合视角下高技术企业创新联盟稳定性研究

从竞合的理论视角出发,运用演化博弈理论,通过构建高技术企业创新联盟成员企业竞合关系的演化博弈模型,分析信任度、互补度、风险系数以及合作创新贴现因子等因素对创新联盟稳定性的影响,并运用Matlab对上述因素的影响进行了数值仿真。结果表明,较高的信任度和互补度可以提高联盟成员间的合作意愿,保障联盟的稳定运行;较高的合作创新贴现因子通过降低联盟成员未来收益的不确定性,增强了合作伙伴间进行长期合作的信心,维持了联盟的稳定运行;由于较高的风险系数增加了合作创新的风险成本,导致联盟成员间合作关系可能演变为竞争关系,从而阻碍了联盟的稳定发展。最后,根据演化博弈分析结果提出了相关建议。     

The Impact of Alliance Management Capabilities on Alliance Attributes and Performance: A Literature Review

The literature on alliances has identified a variety of inter‐firm antecedents of performance, including information and knowledge sharing between partners, shared partner understanding, and a focus on collective objectives. Recent studies have focused on alliance management capabilities (AMC) – firms' abilities to capture, share, store and apply alliance management knowledge – as an important antecedent of performance. This paper reviews 90 studies on AMC and makes two important contributions to the literature. First, the review provides an overview of and classification scheme for the different types of AMC to better organise the diverse empirical findings that have been presented in the literature. The novel classification distinguishes between general and partner‐specific AMC and between AMC stored within the firm and within the alliance. Second, consistent with the dynamic capabilities perspective, this paper offers a more detailed understanding of why AMC improve performance, by highlighting the intermediate impact of AMC on alliance attributes. In particular, the review demonstrates how the different categories of AMC influence alliances in terms of information and knowledge‐sharing between partners, shared partner understanding and the pursuit of collective goals. The review also demonstrates that these attributes improve performance. The authors note promising avenues for future empirical research that involve combining the classification scheme with research on the impact of AMC on alliance attributes and performance.     

战略阻绝效应对战略联盟决策的影响分析

本文将对战略联盟决策的分析纳入SCP范式,并通过构造在位者和潜在进入者之间的三阶段博弈模型来分析战略阻绝效应对战略联盟决策的影响.本文认为:在位者的合适的战略联盟行为具有战略阻绝效应,可以通过改变潜在进入者的进入预期、影响进入者的行为并促进在位者的支付,这种支付的改变将拓宽战略联盟的决策空间,在位者将在更高的联盟成本或更低的固定边际成本下降程度上建立战略联盟.     

Improving the Progress of Research & Development (R&D) Projects by Selecting an Optimal Alliance Structure and Partner Type

This paper extends the study of alliance governance structure by examining what alliance structure, coordination mechanisms and partner type best enhance the likelihood of Research and Development (R&D) progress or performance. We specially focus on the coordination and interaction mechanism of alliances, through which we classify the alliance governance structures in order to reflect the more complex alliance types and contracts used in today's R&D. Using data from 255 biopharmaceuticals between the years 2000 and 2004, we found that, ceteris paribus, a moderate degree of inter‐partner interaction and a moderately complex (non‐equity‐based) alliance contract contributes more to a better R&D alliance performance than those structures that are too simple or too organizationally embedded (e.g. equity joint ventures), which possibly increase the risk of misalignment and miscommunication between allies. In addition, due to the reduced opportunism and the diverse resource (e.g. technology) pooled in the alliance, allying with diverse organizational partners such as non‐profit research institutes and universities is more likely to enhance the R&D performance. Our findings provide insightful strategic implications to practitioners in designing an appropriate alliance governance structure and choosing the right partner type for a successful R&D collaboration.     

Online buying behavior: a transaction cost economics perspective

Using a transaction cost economics perspective, this paper presents a model for understanding consumers' on-line buying behavior. An empirical study was conducted in Singapore to test the model. The results indicate that consumers' willingness to buy online is negatively associated with their perceived transaction cost, and perceived transaction cost is associated with uncertainty, dependability of online stores and buying frequency. When consumers perceive more dependability of online stores and less uncertainty in online shopping and have more online experiences, they are more likely to buy online. Implications of the results are discussed.     

Minimum cost network design in strategic alliances

Strategic alliances are established between firms to improve their competitiveness in markets and generally appear in the form of joint ventures. Such collaborative efforts require centralized planning, and the survival of the alliance largely depends on the success of joint planning processes. In this regard, we investigate the opportunities that centralized collaboration can offer to firms when designing their service networks. Apart from the classical fixed and variable costs associated with the network design, we also consider transaction costs induced by the formation of the alliance, which can broadly be defined as cost components related to the coordination and monitoring of the people, efforts and resources. We concentrate on bilateral alliances and develop alternative models for solving their associated network design problem. We also adopt a state-of-the-art heuristic to solve large-scale instances. Our findings confirm that accounting for the transaction cost in network design is vital for the alliance. These transaction costs can be high enough to even render the collaboration unattractive. Hence, careful data collection and model treatment are required before deciding whether to form an alliance.     

Agent and Task Complexity in Multilateral Alliances: The Safeguarding Role of Equity Governance

Multilateral alliances are an inherently complex organizational form; managing these complexities is particularly difficult for alliance partners because alliances are plagued by both internal and external uncertainty. Using insights from transaction cost economics, our study identifies, articulates and tests different forms of alliance complexity and their impacts on alliance governance structure. Specifically, we investigate two forms of alliance complexity: agent and task. We decompose agent complexity into organizational and partner complexity, and decompose task complexity into geographic, transaction and technological complexity. Using a sample of 327 trilateral alliances, the most frequent form of multilateral alliances, we find that three forms of alliance complexity involving internal uncertainty (organizational, partner and technological complexity) favor equity-based governance, whereas external uncertainty in the form of geographic complexity discourages equity-based governance.     

Sustained Monopolistic Business Relationships: An Interdisciplinarity Case

Business‐to‐business relationships within sustained monopolies, such as those within UK defence procurement, have received scant attention by management researchers. This is unusual because under these market circumstances there appear to be few incentives to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes despite their strategic policy importance. This paper argues that an understanding of the monopolistic environment using a transaction cost economics theoretical framework and supply‐chain management, relationship marketing and transaction cost economics concepts provides an innovative, interdisciplinarity approach to solving this problem as well as testing aspects of these disciplines empirically in a novel area. This paper describes the results from a substantial research project to test this hypothesis in the UK defence procurement situation. It reveals a number of key dynamics within the sustained monopolistic relationships surveyed and suggests considerable potential for further research.     

Cooperation governance mode: an extended transaction cost approach

This paper analyses the cooperation governance mode and possible factors affecting the choice between an equity joint venture and a contractual agreement. Although transaction cost economics (TCE) provides a workable and well-used framework within which to analyse this choice, it only captures the static transaction costs related to the two modes. This has lead to a discussion about dynamic governance costs and possible benefits related to the governance mode. The objective of this paper is to show how this extended framework differs from TCE when determining the appropriate governance mode. We use four factors related to nature of cooperation to contrast these two approaches. We collected empirical data about cooperation in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector in order to find support for these arguments. Estimates based on logistic regression analysis suggest that our dynamic governance cost and benefit perspective really provides valuable complementary insights into the traditional static transaction-cost framework when it is a question of the choice of alliance form.     

Alliance governance choices: Disentangling the effects of uncertainty and alliance experience

This article analyses the interaction between alliance experience and behavioural uncertainty to improve our understanding of alliance governance. We investigate the extent to which the effect of alliance experience on governance choices is explained by a reduction in “mundane” transaction costs or by a reduction in “opportunistic” transaction costs. Based on more than 12,000 firm experiences with equity and non-equity alliances, we demonstrate a reduction in mundane transaction costs over time by firms reusing the same governance structure in successive alliances. We also find that in high behavioural uncertainty alliances, firms rely on their experience as a substitute for equity governance to reduce opportunistic transaction costs.     

Capability,Quality, and Performance of Offshore IS Vendors: A Theoretical Framework and Empirical Investigation

Information systems (IS) offshoring has become a widespread practice and a strategic sourcing choice for many firms. While much has been written by researchers about the factors that lead to successful offshoring arrangements from the client's viewpoint, the vendor's perspective has been largely scarce. The vendor perspective is equally important as offshore IS vendors need to make important decisions in terms of delivering operational and strategic performance and aligning their resources and processes in order to meet or exceed targeted outcomes. In this article, we propose and test a three‐level capability–quality–performance (CQP) theoretical framework to understand vendor outcomes and their antecedents. The first level of the framework represents three vendor capabilities: relationship management, contract management, and information technology management. The second level has three mediating variables representing process quality: partnership, service, and deliverable quality. The third level has three dependent variables representing vendor outcomes: operational performance, strategic performance, and satisfaction. The model was tested with 188 vendor firms from India and China, the two most popular destinations for IS offshoring. Results support the CQP framework; vendor capabilities are significant predictors of intermediate quality measures, which in turn affect vendor outcomes. Implications of the study findings to both theory development and IS offshore vendor strategic decision making are discussed.     

The stability of strategic alliances: Characteristics, factors and stages

This paper presents a theoretical framework for understanding the evolutionary dynamics of strategic alliances. Using an integrated process model, we analyze the conceptual characteristics and antecedents of the stability of strategic alliances. The primary purpose of this study is to (1) conceptualize and characterize alliance stability to fill the academic gap in the literature, and (2) identify a range of endogenous factors underlying alliance stability across four developmental stages — partner selection, structuring/negotiation, implementation and performance evaluation — so as to fill the managerial relevance gap. From the discussion, we develop a number of propositions to facilitate future empirical testing of our conceptual model. Finally, we indicate some key implications for theoretical research and managerial practice.     

Coping with Diversity in Alliances for Innovation: The Role of Relational Social Capital and Knowledge Codifiability

Alliances are increasingly considered a key element for innovation, especially in knowledge‐intensive firms. While this is true, the mere membership to alliances does not explain innovation performance, and thus the alliance's characteristics that determine high performance must be examined. This research address the question of how the diversity of partners in a certain alliance for innovation affects innovation performance, and how this influence can be moderated by certain characteristics, such as the relational dimension of social capital and the type of knowledge shared among partners. The empirical analysis of a sample of 90 biotech companies shows that there is an inverted U‐shaped relationship between alliance partner diversity and innovation performance and confirms the positive moderating effects of relational social capital and knowledge codifiability. These findings contribute to the current research on alliances for innovation by providing empirical evidence on why some alliances perform better than others. Also, the results suggest that the study of alliance partner diversity, as a determinant of alliance performance, should not be addressed in isolation.     

可再生能源配额制、发电厂商的策略行为与演化

可再生能源配额制（简称配额制），是我国实现能源低碳转型的强制性制度变迁；其成功与否，决定于科学的制度设计。制度具有建构性与演进性，配额制在建构发电厂商策略行为博弈规则的同时，长期中会与发电厂商的策略行为共生演化。本文在构建配额制与发电厂商策略行为演化博弈模型基础上，分析了配额制的相关制度准参数对发电厂商策略行为的影响。结果表明：配额制与发电厂商策略行为的演化博弈均衡，决定于相关的制度准参数（如配额和单位罚金）以及绿色证书市场的交易成本和发电厂商的边际成本差额。其中，科学的配额、较高的单位罚金以及较低的交易成本和边际成本差额，绿色证书市场更为有效，配额制这一强制性制度变迁更易成功；反之反是。因此，科学设计配额制的相关制度准参数并加强其制度环境建设，有助于我国有效施行配额制。