Building Capabilities for Alliance Portfolios

This article analyses how firms build their capabilities for alliance portfolios. We investigate different solutions that are adopted across portfolio sizes, and whether the adoption of these solutions explains alliance portfolio performance. Our findings illustrate which solutions practitioners should consider implementing when expanding their alliance portfolio, and which can help enhance their portfolio performance. Our conclusions are based on a sample of 192 firms managing over 3,400 strategic alliances and seven expert interviews. We analyse the adoption of 14 distinct alliance practices in four solution categories. Our results reveal whether and when functional and staffing (e.g. alliance manager, alliance department), tool-based (e.g. intranet, codification of best practices), training (e.g. in-house, external training) and third party (e.g. consultant, mediators) solutions help firms transition successfully between small, medium, and large alliance portfolios, and to what extent they are associated with alliance success. Rules of engagement for successful alliance portfolio management are discussed.

[1]  J. Scott Armstrong,et al.  Estimating nonresponse bias in mail surveys. , 1977 .

[2]  Donald E. Conlon,et al.  Examining the Actions of Organizations in Conflict: Evidence From the Delaware Court of Chancery , 1999 .

[3]  Geert Duysters,et al.  *Alliance Capability as a Mediator between Experience and Alliance Performance: An Empirical Investigation into the Alliance Capability Development Process , 2005 .

[5]  J. Barney,et al.  CAPABILITIES, BUSINESS PROCESSES, AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: CHOOSING THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE IN EMPIRICAL TESTS OF THE RESOURCE-BASED VIEW , 2004 .

[6]  B. Kogut.  Joint Ventures and the Option to Expand and Acquire , 1991 .

[7]  Andreas Rauch.  Success factors of small and medium sized enterprises , 2000 .

[8]  Robert E. Spekman.  Alliance Competence: Maximizing the Value of Your Partnerships , 1999 .

[9]  Robert S. Dooley,et al.  After the Ink Dries: The Interaction of Trust and Control in US-Based International Joint Ventures , 2002 .

[10]  Benjamin Gomes-Casseres,et al.  Mastering Alliance Strategy: A Comprehensive Guide to Design, Management, and Organization , 2002 .

[11]  Scott Gallagher,et al.  Explaining Alliance Partner Selection: Fit, Trust and Strategic Expediency , 2007 .

[12]  Michael Barnett,et al.  Falling Off the Fence? , 2003 .

[13]  Jeffrey J. Reuer,et al.  Downside Risk Implications of Multinationality and International Joint Ventures , 2000 .

[14]  S. Park,et al.  Interfirm Rivalry and Managerial Complexity: A Conceptual Framework of Alliance Failure , 2001 .

[15]  Andrew C. Inkpen,et al.  Believing Is Seeing: Joint Ventures and Organization Learning* , 1995 .

[16]  KH Koen Heimeriks.  Developing Alliance Capabilities , 2008 .

[17]  Anton Gueth,et al.  Entering into an alliance with big pharma: Benchmarks for drug delivery contract service providers , 2001 .

[18]  W. H. Hoffmann,et al.  Success Factors of Strategic Alliances in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises—An Empirical Survey , 2001 .

[19]  Terry S. Overton,et al.  Estimating Nonresponse Bias in Mail Surveys , 1977 .

[20]  L. Gratton,et al.  8 ways to build collaborative teams. , 2007, Harvard business review.

[21]  Ji Mohr,et al.  Characteristics of partnership success: Partnership attributes, communication behavior and conflict resolution technique, Strategic Management Journal, January, . , 1994 .

[22]  Reuben E. Slone.  Liderar una transformación de la cadena de suministro , 2004 .

[23]  Geert Duysters,et al.  Learning mechanisms and differential performance in alliance portfolios , 2007 .

[24]  D. Leonard,et al.  Deep smarts , 2004, IEEE Engineering Management Review.

[25]  Michael X Cohen,et al.  Organizational Routines Are Stored as Procedural Memory: Evidence from a Laboratory Study , 1994 .

[26]  Harbir Singh,et al.  ALLIANCE CAPABILITY & SUCCESS: A KNOWLEDGE-BASED APPROACH. , 1999 .

[27]  J. M. Geringer,et al.  Measuring Performance of International Joint Ventures , 1991 .

[28]  R. Sohi,et al.  IT competency and firm performance: is organizational learning a missing link? , 2003 .

[29]  Kathleen M. Eisenhardt,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES, WHAT ARE THEY? , 2000 .

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

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

[32]  W. H. Hoffmann.  Strategies for managing a portfolio of alliances , 2007 .

[33]  Constance E. Helfat.  The SMS Blackwell Handbook of Organizational Capabilities , 2003 .

[34]  Ron Ashkenas.  Simplicity-minded management. A practical guide to stripping complexity out of your organization. , 2007, Harvard business review.

[35]  Werner H. Hoffmann,et al.  How to Manage a Portfolio of Alliances , 2005 .

[36]  S. Zahra,et al.  Absorptive Capacity: A Review, Reconceptualization, and Extension , 2002 .

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

[38]  H. Volberda,et al.  Building Alliance Capability:: Management Techniques for Superior Alliance Performance , 2003 .

[39]  Jeffrey H. Dyer,et al.  How To Make Strategic Alliances Work , 2001 .