How to Manage a Portfolio of Alliances

Many companies have become embedded in a dense network of relationships as a result of intensive alliance activities. A company's alliance portfolio therefore crucially influences its competitiveness and financial performance. This study researches the question of what management tasks - beyond those of managing individual alliances - arise in companies with multiple alliances and how large global companies deal with such tasks. The author analysed the multi–alliance management practices of 25 leading European companies and identified four tasks of portfolio management: strategy, monitoring, co-ordination and the establishment of an alliance management system. To implement these tasks, companies need to create a dedicated alliance function and develop companywide standards and customised tools for multi-alliance management. This is the only way to ensure that the alliance portfolio contributes to attaining the company's strategic goals.

[1]  Peter P. Pekar,et al.  Smart Alliances: A Practical Guide to Repeatable Success , 1998 .

[2]  Gianni Lorenzoni,et al.  Creating a Strategic Center to Manage a Web of Partners , 1995 .

[3]  J. Hagedoorn,et al.  The institutionalization and evolutionary dynamics of interorganizational alliances and networks. , 1997 .

[4]  T. Khanna,et al.  Do Firms Learn to Create Value? The Case of Alliances , 2000 .

[5]  R. Gulati.  Network location and learning: the influence of network resources and firm capabilities on alliance formation , 1999 .

[6]  Hans Georg Gemünden,et al.  Managing Technological Networks: The Concept Of Network Competence , 1996 .

[7]  Jeffrey H. Dyer,et al.  The Relational View: Cooperative Strategy and Sources of Interorganizational Competitive Advantage , 1998 .

[8]  Bernard L. Simonin.  The Importance of Collaborative Know-How: An Empirical Test of the Learning Organization , 1997 .

[9]  H. Gemünden,et al.  Relationships and Networks in International Markets , 1998 .

[10]  Jeffrey H. Dyer,et al.  Alliance capability, stock market response, and long‐term alliance success: the role of the alliance function , 2002 .

[11]  Donald E. Hatfield,et al.  THE EFFECTS OF CORPORATE RESTRUCTURING ON AGGREGATE INDUSTRY SPECIALIZATION , 1996 .

[12]  W. Powell.  Learning from Collaboration: Knowledge and Networks in the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries , 1998 .

[13]  K. Eisenhardt,et al.  Resource-based View of Strategic Alliance Formation: Strategic and Social Effects in Entrepreneurial Firms , 1996 .

[14]  R. Gulati.  Alliances and networks , 1998 .

[15]  Maurizio Zollo,et al.  Deliberate Learning and the Evolution of Dynamic Capabilities , 2002 .

[16]  Y. Doz,et al.  Alliance Advantage: The Art of Creating Value Through Partnering , 1998 .

[17]  Michael Useem,et al.  The Alliance Revolution: The New Shape of Business Rivalry@@@Investor Capitalism: How Money Managers are Changing the Face of Corporate America , 1996 .

[18]  Y. Doz.  The evolution of cooperation in strategic alliances: Initial conditions or learning processes? , 2007 .

[19]  Eric T. Anderson,et al.  The Scope of Alliances , 1998 .

[20]  Ren-Jye Liu,et al.  Stars, Rings and Tiers: Organisational Networks and Their Dynamics in Taiwan's Machine Tool Industry , 2000 .

[21]  J. Child,et al.  Strategies of cooperation: managing alliances, networks, and joint ventures , 2000 .

[22]  Werner H. Hoffmann,et al.  Acquire or Ally? -- A Strategy Framework for Deciding between Acquisition and Cooperation , 2001 .

[23]  John W. Medcof,et al.  Why too many alliances end in divorce , 1997 .