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The alliance governance – whether equity or non-equity based – through which an alliance is governed serves as a mechanism to protect a firm from partner's opportunistic behavior, manage resource dependence and facilitate knowledge sharing. Alliance governance structure also reflects the risk, reward and control that partners perceive in a relationship. In light of the conflicts and instabilities reported in strategic alliances, the purpose of this paper is to examine the interorganizational domain that affects the endurance and continuity of collaboration and explain how the alliance interface contexts determines the structuring of alliance governance.

An empirical examination of 179 strategic alliances, using survey and archival data conducted to test the hypothesized relationship between the choice of governance structure and the complexity of alliance task, balance of power and competitive scope between partners.

A multinomial logistic regression of the hypothesized variables revealed that the complexity of alliance task, balance of power, and competitive scope between partners are significantly related to the mode of alliance governance – whether non-equity, minority-equity, or joint venture.

This study makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the relationships between the contextual factors such as the alliance task, power dynamics, and competitive scope that shape the collaboration and structuring of appropriate alliance governance mode. Results of the study provide strong evidence for the hypotheses that the greater the task complexity, and greater the balance of power and scope of competition between partners, the alliance governance tends to be equity or joint venture based. Consistent with recommendations of several organizational scholars that the theory of alliance governance and performance must shift from individual partner firm to interaction domain and interface contexts (Luo, 2002; Gray and Wood, 1991; Oxley and Sampson, 2004), this study integrally examined the dyadic issues such as balance of power, task complexity, and the competitive scope and the dynamic role they play in decisions pertaining to alliance governance. While many extant studies on the choice of alliance governance structure have employed secondary data sources, the study employed data from survey measures (Gulati, 1995; Teng and Das, 2008; Oxley and Sampson, 2004) enhancing the validity of the results.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

To identify cases related to design of ICT platforms for industrial alliances, where the use of Ontology‐driven architectures based on Semantic web standards is more advantageous than application of conventional modeling together with XML standards.

A comparative analysis of the two latest and the most obvious use cases (NASA and Nordic Process Industry Data Exchange Alliance) concerned with development of an environment for integration and collaboration of industrial partners, has been used as a basis for the research results. Additionally, dynamics of changes in a domain data model and their consequences have been analyzed on a couple of typical use cases.

Ontology‐driven architectures of a collaboration and integration ICT platforms have been recognized as more appropriate for a technical support of industrial alliances around a supply‐chains with a long life cycles.

More typical cases related to changes in domain data/knowledge models and to necessity of their integration, have to be considered and analyzed in search of advantageous of ontological modeling over conventional modeling approaches. Ways of a gradual change from conventional domain models to ontological ones in ICT systems have to be studied. The significance of existing XML‐based tools and the popularity of XML has to be estimated for the wide adoption of Semantic web principles.

The modeling approach which will be used as a core for building a collaboration and integration ICT platforms has to be carefully selected. Incorrect choice (e.g. UML together with XML) can cause consequences that will be hard to reform. The paper is anticipated to facilitate faster adoption of the Semantic web approach by industry.

The serious revision of existing and emerging domain modeling approaches has been undertaken. More unique arguments in favor of ontological modeling have been discovered. The paper is intended for serious consideration by emerging industrial alliances with regard to their choice in a core technology that will technically enable integration and collaboration between partners.

The management of competences in interorganizational relations refers to two fundamental domains in strategy: competence and co-operation. Thus, it constitutes an area of research which is at one and the same time complex and promising. The synthesis presented in the form of a literature review in this article allows us to look at the current state of approaches in the management of competences in interorganizational relations in the context of the resource-based view and the competence-based management perspective. We then propose a model based on two dimensions: the first is defined by the nature of the relationship (considered to be a space where either co-operation or competition predominates) and the second by the actions taken on the competences in the context of the relationship (oriented either towards creating new competences or leveraging existing ones).

The purpose of this paper is to explain the culture‐driven role and effects of social capital in Japanese‐Western alliances. The authors move beyond narrow conceptualizations of relationship bonding (i.e. positive socio‐psychological aspects such as trust and commitment) to explore the broader role of social capital (e.g. in destructive act recovery processes) in such alliances.

The conceptual paper adopts a theory development approach.

The authors advance a process model and propositions that explain the way social capital networks and processes influence relationship‐based contracting and performance outcomes in alliances with the Japanese.

The study assists international marketers in their efforts to overcome cultural barriers to success in Japanese‐Western alliance relationships.

It can be argued that erosion of Japanese business culture potentially clouds the picture for implementing governance through social capital. The study furnishes managers with an understanding of how to take the cultural context of the partnership into account to build appropriate and productive social capital with Japanese partners.

The study is novel in addressing the issue of how to implement relational bonding mechanisms in complex cultural situations. As a result of cultural erosion, different types of Japanese partner, eroded versus traditional, may require different alliance screening and management strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and explain the circumstances in which a highly collaborative integrated project delivery form such an alliance is the most appropriate choice of delivering infrastructure projects.

The paper draws upon two previously published studies on alliancing to enable gathering insights from a quantitative study with some qualitative data that indicates project alliance delivery performance is high and suggests why it may be adopted as a project delivery form. A second qualitative study recently completed and published on integrated collaborative forms of project delivery such as alliances is re-analysed to better understand how and why this form may be successful. Together these two studies allowed a focus on the motivation to form an alliance and specific conditions relating to the alliance party’s level of ability and willingness to deeply collaborate.

The motivation to deeply collaborate may be triggered by specific internal and external trigger mechanisms. These are identified in the paper together with discussion about the requirement of parties to have sufficient knowledge, skills, attributes and experience to collaborate at a deeply engaged level.

The data used in the studies were from large scale infrastructure construction projects. The examples are mainly drawn from countries where collaboration is common and culturally acceptable; results may not apply to cultures, country or workplace, where high levels of competition are seen to be the optimal strategy for project delivery success. Also, the data were drawn from construction project management (PM). Other project-based areas such as professional services for example may present a different context and hence a different rationale.

The study provides deep insights about the nature of collaboration. It may have wider applicability.

Project organising is a social activity with social implications for how they are delivered that affect internal as well as external stakeholders. Being mindful about the motivation to choose a particular delivery form is important.

This is a new area of research in PM and the world faces a massive demand for large scale complex projects. This paper may provide a rational to drive policy in project delivery choices.

The purpose of the paper is to introduce standardization as a neutral arena for open innovation. The aim is to show that different policies towards open membership in standardization initiatives lead to different open innovation processes.

Two cases are used to illustrate the differences in open innovation processes. The cases are the Android mobile operating system and the service platform developed by the Open Mobile Alliance. The core process types introduced by Gassmann and Enkel are used to show the different open innovation approaches.

Both cases use open innovation to create standards. Open membership leads to a coupled process, while a more restricted membership gives separate inside‐out and outside‐in processes. The case lead by established firms in the industry has a process where radical innovations are introduced early in the process, while the case lead by newcomers has a process where radical innovations are introduced late in the process. The two cases have different approaches towards commercialization of the products. Android relies on third‐party developers, while the Open Mobile Alliance relies on their own members.

The cases are from the telecommunication sector and based on standardization of large technical platforms. The findings might not be the same for other sectors.

The paper establishes open innovation as a neutral arena for open innovation outside the domain of any single firm. It shows how the openness towards membership influences the choice of open innovation processes.

Despite increasing research on the social nature of entrepreneurial collaboration in the context of alliances, its performance implication has been under debate. The present study tests a theoretical framework to elucidate the mediated relationship between social capital (SC) and research and development (R&D) alliance performance through the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of alliance firms.

Based on the authors’ literature review, SC is conceptualized as the sum of actual and potential assets, including structural, relational and cognitive capital, embedded within the networks of alliance partners. Alliance performance is regarded as a combination of technological performance and business performance, corresponding to the mutual and private benefits of R&D alliances, respectively. This study hypothesizes the potential impact of SC on alliance performance and the mediating role of EO in the relationship.

The results from an analysis of 218 Korean ventures that participated in R&D alliance projects as focal alliance partners show that each SC dimension drives alliance firms to enact EO, which eventually leads to increased performance in technology and business. Specifically, EO contributes to translating the implications of SC for technological performance partially and for business performance completely.

This study links fragmented theoretical perspectives in research, shedding new light on the importance of social nature in the context of R&D alliances, which conditions entrepreneurial collaboration for better alliance performance. The findings suggest that practitioners should adopt an ambidextrous approach to the SC–EO interface at the alliance level, which opens a gateway to achieve greater performance by alliance.