Best-fit Alliance Partners: The Use of Critical Success Factors in a Comprehensive Partner Selection Process

Firms increasingly form alliances to access needed capabilities, gain knowledge and seek competitive advantage. Strategic alliance partner selection is a critical aspect of successful alliance development; even superior alliance management may not be sufficient to overcome poor initial partner screening and selection efforts. Prior partner selection research has typically focused on generic, conceptual motivations for alliances, addressing only some pieces of the partner selection puzzle; in addition, previous research has been static and has not presented a way to operationalize partner selection analysis. This paper presents a new conceptual comprehensive partner selection framework that includes dynamic partner selection considerations. In addition, a new analytical partner selection tool is presented to illustrate how firms can operationalize their partner selection analysis process. Developed and tested with input from over two hundred alliance managers, the comprehensive partner selection framework includes new perspectives and an analysis of four critical alliance partner selection criteria, or critical success factors (CSFs): task-related CSFs — factors that facilitate or inhibit the successful completion of desired alliance objectives; learning-related CSFs — critical, desired attributes in potential alliance partners that enhance learning outcomes; partnering-related CSFs — relational factors that can enhance or inhibit how the alliance unfolds and therefore affect its outcomes; and risk-related CSFs — factors that arise from the interdependent nature of alliances, which are often neglected in practice. Where aspects of these CSFs have been omitted from analysis during initial partner selection, alliance managers tell us of a litany of issues, challenges and failures that they have been forced to address, many of which might have been avoided altogether with greater diligence up front. We embed these four sets of criteria within a comprehensive partner selection framework and provide guidelines, examples and a specific methodology designed to help managers address the complexities involved in developing their own, unique partner selection criteria and processes.

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