Organisationale Einflussfaktoren des Allianzerfolgs – Eine empirische Analyse auf Basis des „resource-based view“

Strategic alliances have become an essential part of business strategy and a central source of competitive advantage for almost any firm. Existing research has mainly focused on the isolated analysis of single alliances. This paper addresses the gap in the literature by analyzing organizational-level determinants of alliances success. Based on survey data from 302 firms, four organizational success factors of alliance management are identified and integrated in a structural model.     

The impact of different fit dimensions on spillover effects in brand alliances

Brand alliances represent a popular business strategy in many industries, because firms hope to evoke positive consumer evaluations of both the alliance’s product and the partner brands. However, extant research offers mixed findings regarding the effects of a brand alliance on its partner brands (i.e., spillover effects). In response, this study separates spillover effects into the effects of the alliance product on the partner brands (brand alliance effects) and the effects between partner brands (brand contrast effects), while also noting the potential moderating impact of perceived attitude- and product-based fit between partner brands on resulting spillover effects. Two experimental studies consistently reveal the existence of brand contrast effects; furthermore, the partner brand’s attitude-based fit reduces undesired brand contrast effects and positively moderates spillover effects in brand alliances, whereas product-based fit does not. Therefore, a third study identifies relevant drivers of partner brand’s attitude-based fit for different brand alliances (i.e., co-branding, ingredient branding, and joint advertising). The findings have notable implications for the design and management of brand alliances.     

Developing strategic alliances: A conceptual framework for successful co-operation

Due to dramatically increasing global competition and in the light of Europe '92, companies have to concentrate on their particular competitive advantages and on those business activities they know well. The market, however, asks for an ever increasing range of products and services. ‘System deals’ include — along with a product — attractive sideline services, like project management, system implementation or supply of related products. In many cases, entering these markets or achieving technological breakthroughs is only possible with a strong partner.These recent developments forced corporations to consider alternative company structures. The failure of many strategic alliances, however, has clearly shown that understanding the development process of the alliance is critical for success. Christoph Bronder and Rudolf Pritzl present a structured procedure for developing strategic alliances that outlines four critical phases: strategic decision for an alliance, alliance configuration, partner selection, and alliance management.     

Technological alliance portfolio configuration and firm performance

Firms pursuing technological alliances to gain competitive advantages have become a ubiquitous phenomenon in today’s business environment. This article examines which technological alliance portfolio configuration is better for focal firm performance using a portfolio rather than a dyadic perspective. To assess technological alliance portfolio effects on Korean pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, we adopted three explanatory variables—number of alliances, number of partners, and spanning structural holes. The growth rate of revenue and the growth rate of profit are used as dependent variables. We identify two characteristics of technological alliance portfolios from the two-step generalized method of moments estimates. First, we find that between two firms with the same number of alliances, the firm with the larger number of partners would have a better performance. This result is unlike those in previous studies because it distinguishes between the number of alliances and number of partners based on the network theory. Second, we find that spanning structural holes affects firm performance rather like a double-edge sword—it positively affects the growth rate of profit but negatively affects the growth rate of revenue of firms. In short, spanning structural holes is simultaneously beneficial for firm profitability and unfavorable for firm growth. This result differs from those of earlier studies because it shows that a firm spanning structural holes among alliance partners produces either a positive or a negative effect, suggesting that a firm should vary its strategy depending on whether it prioritizes profitability or growth.     

研发型战略联盟风险预警机制研究

研发型联盟对风险的识别和预警直接决定了研发活动的成败。本文针对研发型联盟面临的风险进行了风险预警设计,首先依据风险的来源划分了联盟可能面临的风险种类,其次明确了联盟风险识别程序;在此基础上,构建了包含六元素(目标、文化、方法、组织、信息、过程)的研发型战略联盟风险预警模式,六个元素构成了风险预警的有机整体,运用管理熵理论对研发联盟风险预警度量进行了量化处理,以熵权从内外两个来源确定联盟的风险度量,并以传递熵概念来明确预警信号指标的准确性,给出了一个较为完整和准确的量化预警模型,以期利于联盟决策者的风险防范应对策略制定。     

Staying Close to the Core: Lessons from Studying the Costs of Unrelated Alliances in Spanish Banking

This article analyses whether alliances create shareholders value, and if this value differs depending on the similarity of the partners' businesses, or on the similarity of the partners' businesses with that of the alliance. Using data from 467 equity and non-equity based strategic alliances from 1996-1999 involving at least one listed Spanish bank, we find that, overall, alliances create shareholder value, but that the returns to shareholders are significantly higher when alliance activity is closer to the core business of the banks, than when alliances involve unrelated activities. Although there is no evidence that unrelated strategic alliances destroy value on average, the results obtained show that banks need to assess the benefits and costs of diversification strategies carefully, as their likelihood of success is initially smaller.     

The Alliance formation process

While interest in developing strategic alliances within the food system continues to increase, there remains considerable risk when firms adopt such a cooperative strategy. The risk is due in part to the lack of concrete guidelines that illustrate the steps or stages of alliance development and the important strategic and operational decisions required at each stage. The existence of such guidelines would facilitate alliance formation and enable managers and researchers to better understand alliance practice. This paper provides an alliance formation model that incorporates the process of alliance formation with the strategic and operational considerations required for long term success. The model can be used by managers and academicians to develop and understand alliances.     

The Dynamics of Research Alliances: Examining the Effect of Alliance Experience and Partner Characteristics on the Speed of Alliance Entry in the Biotech Industry

Few studies have moved beyond the dyadic level of an ongoing alliance and examined factors contributing to the success of entering a series of alliances. In this paper we expect biotechnology firms over time to learn from their alliance experience and to develop general alliance capabilities. Specifically, we expect the speed with which they enter into new research alliances, e.g. their alliance formation rate, to be affected by capabilities built up in prior alliances as well as by characteristics of their partners. We use longitudinal event history data for the complete population of US biotechnology firms for 1973–1999 to test four hypotheses about factors affecting the rate of new alliance formation. Our analysis suggests that the speed of entering research alliances is affected by prior experience of the focal firm, but not by partner characteristics. Our findings provide evidence that biotech firms learn how to learn more effectively from multiple research alliances; however, this effect is generalized and not tied to specific characteristics of the alliance partner.     

Strategic technology alliance termination: An empirical investigation

There is growing consensus that overall alliance termination rates are high. However, despite this track record of termination and despite unsurpassed growth rates of strategic technology alliances, little is known about the reasons for their termination. Typically strategic alliances have been characterized as inherently instable, i.e. often involving unplanned and premature termination of the alliance by partnering firms indicating alliance failure. The literature on strategic technology alliances, however, proposes that alliance termination does not always indicate failure, but can be intended and can be a sign of strength. We examine these different perceptions by using a sample of 48 strategic technology alliances in different high-technology industries. The findings in the paper confirm that the rates of termination are rather high for strategic technology alliances. Overall, we found that in particular negative prospects about future cooperation, negative perceptions about joint benefits and the lack of a win-win situation had an impact on the decision to terminate a strategic technology alliance. Also, the fact that some companies opt only for short-term (not for long-term and renewed) cooperation seems to introduce a negative factor into the longevity of strategic technology alliances.     

战略联盟内部的相互信任及其建立机制

战略联盟是近年来涌现的企业发展战略中极为重要的一种组织形式,也是管理理论界探讨的热门话题之一。本文探讨了战略联盟内部成员企业在组建和运转过程中的相互信任问题,剖析了战略联盟内部相互信任的定义、作用及其形式,并提出了建立相互信任的各种措施。     

Alliance formation issues for knowledge-based enterprises

Inter-firm collaboration among knowledge-intensive firms is increasing as a result of accelerating competition, falling regulatory barriers and rising customer expectations. Resource dependency theory is used to position knowledge as the key resource for the knowledge-based enterprise and to examine the suitability of alliances as a mode of knowledge acquisition and exchange, contrasted particularly with merger and acquisition. The alliance and knowledge literatures are reviewed, and particular attention is paid to the critical alliance formation stage. This stage is reviewed against a research model that posits firm performance in knowledge creation arises from a number of factors, including the motivation for an alliance, partner firm characteristics (the ability to develop and sustain valuable resources; absorptive capacity; combinative capability; experience with alliances; and appropriate design for knowledge exchange), the development of operating structures and norms, and the choice of alliance structure. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research..     

Relational stability and alliance performance in supply chain

Drawing on the theories of social exchange and goal interdependence, this paper examines the antecedents of relational stability in supply chain alliances and if the stability affects alliance performance in supply chain in the context of manufacturing firms. The results show that both relational commitment and trust of supplier have positive effects on relational stability in supply chain alliance, which in turn positively affects the alliance performance. These results have important implications for researchers investigating the effectiveness of supply chain alliances as well as practitioners seeking to improve alliance performance in supply chain.     

The Impacts of Alliance Purpose and Partner Similarity on Alliance Governance

It is generally recognized that the governance structure of an alliance has an impact on its probability of success. In this study, we examine the choice between two alternative alliance governance structures: equity and non-equity. Drawing from transaction cost economics, two sets of factors, namely alliance purpose (R&D or marketing) and cultural distance between partners, are hypothesized to influence the above choice. We further hypothesize that collaborative R&D alliances, where both parties contribute technical knowledge, are more likely to lead to the formation of equity alliances than non-collaborative research agreements, where only one partner may be doing the research work. Based on a sample of 2407 alliances formed in the global biotechnology industry, we find partial support for the hypothesized relationships. Specifically, we find that collaborative R&D alliances are more likely to be equity alliances, whereas non-collaborative R&D alliances do not have any impact on the choice of the governance form. We also find that alliances formed with a marketing purpose are less likely to be equity alliances. We did not find any relationship between cultural distance and the choice of equity alliances.     

Credibly reducing information asymmetry: Signaling on economic or environmental value by environmental alliances

This article focuses on strategic alliances that strive for economic profit while contributing to environmental sustainability. These so-called environmental alliances operate on a spectrum between the goals of economic and environmental value. New environmental alliances signal in announcements to their external stakeholders where they position themselves on this spectrum of alliance goals in order to reduce information asymmetry and enhance their credibility. In this article, we predict the type of external signal that environmental alliances send by studying alliance processes and structures that embed the latent alliance goals. We built an original dataset by combining data on 389 environmental alliances from the SDC Platinum database for the period 2013–2017 and data on signals in 650 alliance announcements. Our findings show that announcements signaling on economic value are mainly used by environmental production and marketing joint ventures, thereby reducing the information asymmetry on their latent goal of economic value. Conversely, announcements signaling on environmental value are mainly used by environmental R&D contracts that focus on the latent goal of environmental value. Our article thus illustrates that alliances aim to enhance their credibility by achieving signal fit between external signals and latent alliance goals. Even though environmental alliances operate on a spectrum of economic and environmental value, we demonstrate that they prefer to avoid sending mixed messages and hence only signal on one of the alliance goals. Our article contributes to the literature on environmental alliances by applying signaling theory to explain these counterintuitive findings and to improve our understanding of how environmental alliances aim for credibility through their communication on their alliance goals.     

Can a Previous Alliance Between an Acquirer and a Target Affect Acquisition Performance?

Throughout the 1990s, organizations have been combining resources through acquisitions and alliances in record numbers. An acquirer’s previous alliance with a target may give an acquirer target-specific information and experience that may be an advantage-producing resource in selection, valuation and integration of the target. This study investigates whether a previous alliance between an acquirer and a target affects post-acquisition performance and finds that a previous alliance between an acquirer and a target correlates positively with acquisition performance. Acquirers’ previous R&D, technology transfer, manufacturing and marketing alliances with targets benefit acquisition performance more than their previous licensing alliances with targets. Furthermore, target-specific learning effects are strongest and most beneficial to acquisition performance in acquirers’ previous technology transfer and manufacturing alliances with targets.     

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。     

Managing Multiple Facets of Risk in New Product Alliances*

The trend of forming alliances to develop new products continues; however, many of these new product alliances fail. As such we explore how key risk types intrinsic in new product alliances, performance, relational, and knowledge appropriation risks, influence alliance success. Further, we theorize that different alliance governance mechanisms can reduce the negative impact of risks on alliance success. To disentangle possible heterogeneous factors across firms that may affect the interplay of risk assessments and the use of governance mechanisms, we employ latent class regression analysis on survey data collected from 128 new product alliance firms and find support for a two‐regime solution. Longer alliance relationships and lower technological turbulence are factors for some firms (regime one), while the opposite are factors for other firms (regime two). These two regimes show different patterns in the interplay of risk assessments and governance for alliance success. Our theory and results support viewing risk as a multiple‐factor concept and by understanding the different impacts of the risk types in new product alliances and how governance mechanisms mitigate such effects, we aid managers' decision making regarding the balance of contractual versus normative governance in new product alliances. Understanding the heterogeneous factors inherent in these complex relationships enables managers to understand the conditions in which various governance mechanisms promote new product alliance success.     

基于知识创造和知识溢出的R&D联盟的动态模型

本文通过对R&D联盟中企业间知识创造和知识溢出的分析,给出了知识存量的一般表示方法,并将参与企业的知识投入和开放水平视为内生变量,构造了知识联盟R&D两阶段的非合作动态博弈模型,提出了在对称的情况下纳什均衡存在并有唯一解的条件,分析了知识投入和知识开放水平在联盟不同时期对企业均衡利润的影响,并通过案例对部分命题提供佐证。最后,在模型假设和模型思想方面进行了一些简单探讨。     

程序公平和分配公平对联盟承诺的影响:基于中国医院联盟的实证研究

研究了程序公平和分配公平对联盟承诺的影响,基于我国医院联盟的背景和问卷调查,利用因子分析、层级回归和调节回归验证了相关假设。实证结果表明:程序公平和分配公平能够提高组织对联盟的承诺;具有不同市场地位的组织由于组织特征、市场环境和联盟地位的差异,对不同类型的公平具有不同的反应。这一结论对现有程序公平主导的观点提出了挑战,深化了现有关于联盟公平的研究。     

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.