INFORMATION PROCESSING IN STRATEGIC ALLIANCE BUILDING: A MULTIPLE‐CASE APPROACH*

Strategic alliance building has proliferated in many industries in recent years. This research focuses on the dynamic aspects of the alliance building process that have been neglected in previous research. the study examines how organizations process information during strategic alliance building and how the effective management of uncertainty and equivocality is linked to alliance success. Analysis of qualitative and quantitative data from a multi-case study leads to a proposed model of information processing in strategic alliance building and research propositions. the research propositions suggest that strategic alliance success is facilitated or impeded by a number of factors including the selection of information-processing mechanisms, the management of alliance building momentum, political activity, and information-processing structure. These factors collectively form information-processing environments that are linked to the success or failure of the alliance. Successful alliance building efforts seem to require adaptive information-processing environments that alter information-processing mechanisms to match information-processing needs.

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