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To show how the key to successfully managing alliances is developing and implementing alliance metrics.

The case of “Acme Manufacturing” (a composite of several firms) is used to illustrate the theory and reasoning behind the creation and tracking of alliance metrics appropriate to the life cycle of the partnership. These ideas are then applied to the ongoing Avnet/HP alliance.

Understanding and applying unique metrics at each stage allows management to anticipate alliance challenges and increase flexibility and adaptability when faced with changing economic and market conditions. Across the life cycle stages the partners must learn to monitor two types of measurements – development metrics, commonly employed in the start‐up and high growth stages, and implementation metrics, engaged throughout the professional, mature, decline, and sustain stages of the life cycle.

This is a case study produced by a consultant specializing in alliance management. It has been peer reviewed but has not been subjected to independent audit.

Proactively managing alliances helps partners ensure value extraction, financial and non‐financial. Development metrics and implementation metrics can help alliance stakeholders understand and plan for the stages of the alliance life cycle while considering their knowledge transfer.

As the cases of Acme Manufacturing and Avnet/HP show, an understanding of alliance life cycles, cultures, and metrics can lead to successful planning, launching, and maintenance of a company's alliances.

Dependence on access to European markets through subcontracting relationships with European firms has exposed subcontracting clothing and textile producers in less developed economies to the vagaries of international market competition. This paper aims to examine the problems that such exposure creates and the requirements for developing marketing activities through the concept of the alliance life cycle as a viable solution for a sample of Tunisian clothing and textile firms.

The inductive reasoning of this research was implemented through qualitative research based on a range of tools derived from a case study and a dual ethnographic approach.

The main results showed that life cycle stages of the subcontracting firms reflected Schumpeter's creation and destruction cycle of innovation. Therefore, subcontracting firms could learn from their activities with their business customers so that they developed marketing competences in innovative processes. The findings also demonstrated that some of the firms in the Tunisian clothing and textile industries were more successful than others.

This research focused mainly on subcontracting alliances with implications for future study of other alliances for different industries.

The life cycle approach could be of great interest to subcontracting managers in the post Multi Fibre Arrangement era. This approach is relevant mainly for decision makers in providing them with a framework within which they might optimise their marketing strategies and their implementations.

The research originality resides in its Schumpeterian perspective in considering business‐to‐business relationships. The value of the paper is to focus on the evolutionary aspects of relationships between contractors and subcontractors and the patterns of the marketing development within these relationships.

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to examine how a focal firm's decision‐making biases at each stage of the alliance life cycle can cause alliance failures such as premature termination and less‐than‐expected productivity.

A dyadic decision‐making approach is used to examine the consequences of decision‐making biases in the evolution of alliances. Concrete cases are presented to substantiate the arguments.

Paying insufficient attention to an alliance partner's behavior causes different judgmental mistakes or decision‐making biases at different stages of the alliance life cycle. These biases can lead to alliance failure.

Dyadic decision making provides a framework to explain persistent but poorly understood dysfunctional behavior in alliances. Although previous authors have acknowledged that safeguards and trust are effective ways to reduce dysfunctional behavior, their mechanisms are still unclear. The paper's arguments suggest that decision‐making biases may serve as crucial mediators of the relationship between governance designs (safeguards or trust) and alliance outcomes. Future work can provide evidence to verify this postulate.

Decision‐making biases emerge in the evolution of alliances and influence alliance performance. Understanding the influence of biases helps to prevent their negative effects and reduces the probability of alliance failure.

Dyadic decision making provides a behavioral framework that complements traditional economic and organizational perspectives in explaining interorganizational decision‐making outcomes in the real world. Three kinds of biases – overconfidence, single outcome calculation, and adjustment and anchoring – are discussed in the paper. The paper addresses how these biases can emerge in the alliance life cycle and lead to various types of dysfunctional behavior, which, in turn, may cause alliance failures such as premature termination and less‐than‐expected productivity.

This paper has a threefold purpose. First, we offer a literature review on alliance capability based on strategic and competence-based management literature. Second, we extend existing literature on alliance capability by breaking this concept down into five subcapabilities, each of which is linked to a stage of the alliance life cycle. Finally, we suggest how firms can support these capabilities through structural, technological, and people-related tools and techniques. We argue that current literature has focused mainly on organization-wide characteristics, the general alliance function, and alliance experience to explain the level of alliance capability. Although we acknowledge the importance of these elements, we stress that more attention needs to be given to the various stage-specific components, actions, and supportive mechanisms that can result in an improved alliance capability.

Literature on strategic alliances (SAs) is large, diverse and growing. It needs synthesis and analysis for application and further research. Authors have also underlined the need for studies covering differences in structuring, situational application and management of alliances. This systematic literature review aims to cover dyadic, network and ecosystem (DNE) alliances with theory, context, characteristics and methodology (TCCM) methodology covering the life cycle stages of an alliance (pre-formation, formation and management) to uncover insights which inform practice and guide further research on this important subject.

This paper follows systematic literature review (SLR) methodology for research design and article selection and TCCM methodology for analysis. It also analyses the literature on DNE alliances using a nine-box matrix with DNE alliance forming one axis and three alliance lifecycle stages of pre-formation (alliance objectives), formation (alliance design and operationalisation) and post formation (alliance management) stages along the other axis.

Analysis indicates focus on individual firms and their own customer value proposition (CVP) in the dyadic and network alliances. Industries with fast-paced technological change benefit from loosely coupled alliances. Social context and social exchanges leading to collaboration and collective strengths mark network alliances, with a focus on knowledge creation and dissemination. Ecosystems focus on a collective CVP, which guides alliance behaviour. Ecosystem leadership guides this purpose through governance for sustained competitiveness. Negative consequences (dark side) of alliances can be mitigated by careful design, formation and management of DNE alliances.

While literature has focussed on static view of alliances in their industry or social context, this literature review analyses alliances along the dyadic, network and ecosystem typology, thus providing a new lens to study alliances. The review also recognises that alliances evolve over their life-cycle stages and observes their progression through their lifecycle stages aids for fuller comprehension of their behaviour. Areas for future research in structuring, leadership, value co-creation and technological change set an agenda for future research.

Dynamic managerial capabilities are drivers of alliance performance. The analysis using the nine-box matrix allows managers to better appreciate the options that exist and the consequences of their actions. Situating their alliance in the appropriate box can allow managers better plan, operationalise and manage their own alliances.

This systematic review compares and contrasts DNE alliances in extant literature and through their lifecycle stages. Insights from TCCM analysis and the nine-box matrix provide unique contribution to both theory and practice in this large and growing domain.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the dynamics of contractual and relational mechanisms during different phases of multi-partner R&D alliances.

The paper uses a longitudinal single case study to gain in-depth understanding of which governance mechanisms are best suited for different phases of alliance collaboration. Applying a retrospective strategy for data collection, three rounds of interviews were conducted with representatives of all partner firms. The data were complemented by documentary analysis of both internal documents and publicly available information.

The findings suggest that the use of governance mechanisms in multi-partner alliances depends on the characteristics of alliance phases. Relational governance is most important in the exploration and development phases, while the importance of contractual governance comes to the fore during the development and finalization phases. Despite the predominance of one type of mechanism, the findings support a complementary perspective of governance mechanisms.

The results of a single case study offer limited generalizability and should thus be treated with caution. More cross-industry, cross-national studies should be conducted to verify the applicability of the findings to other industries, cultures and geographical contexts.

Managers should be aware that different phases of the alliance life cycle have different control and coordination needs, and should rely on different mechanisms during different phases of the alliance.

The authors have synthesized insights from various perspectives (transaction cost economics, organization theory, social exchange theory), and developed a multidisciplinary approach to multi-partner collaborations.

The literature on academic international research teams (AIRTs) has drawn conclusions and made recommendations based on cross-sectional “snapshots” of the research team process – observations made prior to the conclusion of the research project. Several large-scale AIRTs have now evolved through a life cycle including result-related publications. We evaluate and extend the literature using a project life cycle perspective, in which each stage exhibits different challenges and opportunities that influence the quality, reliability and validity of the final research output and the overall viability of the knowledge-creation project. We conclude with recommendations for the effective management of AIRTs and, indeed, perhaps all multinational, globally distributed teams engaged in both basic and applied knowledge creation.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a doctoral thesis that developed an Alliance Team Integration Performance Index (ATIPI), an assessment tool for measuring team integration performance in alliance projects. It provides a summary of the thesis findings, shares the candidate’s doctoral journey and discusses both the thesis “with publication” format and the doctoral programme at the University of Auckland.

This study employed a qualitative and quantitative research methodology (mixed methods research). Research methods applied as reported in this thesis include the Delphi questionnaire survey, interviews and empirical questionnaire surveys with the alliance experts involved in road infrastructure projects.

Results from the thesis indicate that the ATIPI is characterized by three elements: first, the most significant Key Indicators (KIs), signifying their dominant influence; second, the suitable quantitative measures for each of the KIs, to promote objective assessment over time; and third, the performance-level boundaries for each KI, to reduce the subjectivity of assessment and promote consistency. The assessment tool was found to be both practical and applicable based on a validation interview and subsequent testing with alliance experts on real life alliance infrastructure projects.

As team integration is the central tenet of alliance projects, the ATIPI is an ideal assessment tool to facilitate the measurement of team integration performance consistently and objectively over the life cycle of alliance projects. Also, the ATIPI is expected to make a fundamental and positive difference towards improving the integration practice of alliance teams.

This study extends the team integration literature by providing significant insights into the practical evaluation of team integration performance, specifically in alliance projects.

ICT projects, especially in the public sector, can have a substantial impact on society but are challenging due to organizational and technological complexities and uncertainties. Collaborative and cooperative project delivery models, namely, the project alliance method, can mitigate such challenges, but, thus far, have not been utilized in information and communication technology (ICT) projects. The purpose of this paper is to explore and understand the cross-field transfer process through which the project alliance model was applied to the ICT field from the construction sector.

An inductive case study of the ICT project alliance early stages was performed. Data were collected from the first known ICT alliance project, conducted in the context of the Finnish public sector digitalization.

The findings show how the activities of institutional entrepreneurs impact the cross-field transfer process during the ICT project alliance’s early stages. Furthermore, the results illustrate the characteristics of an ICT project alliance and compare those with more traditional project alliances.

The topic and results of the study are original and contribute to institutional research by identifying and studying the micro-level processes associated with the cross-field transfer process. The study also builds an initial understanding of a new method of organizing ICT projects and contributes to the project alliance literature. The managerial implications of the findings allow project practitioners to understand the emerging characteristics of an ICT project alliance, and enable managers in the ICT field to adjust and prepare their own organizations and processes for the application of the project alliance model.

The formation of alliances between organisations is increasingly common, allowing firms to discover and ensure competitive advantages. This research paper aims to make a critical analysis of studies to understand the role of communication between partners in the process of strategic alliances.

A systematic literature review was carried out, using the Web of Science database to obtain data, associating the terms “communication” and “strategic alliances”, which resulted in 240 scientific articles (published between 1993 and March 2021). After data treatment using VOSviewer software and reading of the contents, the final sample consisted of 179 articles on the subject in question.

The conceptual limits, exploratory descriptive analysis of the data and content analysis of research methods are presented, with five clusters being identified. The results show growing academic interest in studying communication associated with strategic alliances, and authors’ main interest lies in understanding the critical success factors and the relation between communication and knowledge.

This study corroborates understanding of the future of alliances, assuming that learning is the main objective; trust is the factor determining success or failure; technology is the aggregating tool; culture affects the relation; and communication is not an end but a means to construct consolidated, long-lasting and high-performing strategic alliances.

This study is innovative in strategic alliances area. The research confirms that the main factor in forming alliances, in both emerging and international markets, is the learning intention. This fact reinforces the relevance of the learning made possible by this transfer of know-how through communication. In addition, this study gives critical understanding of how the process of communication between partners in an alliance must be distinct; i.e. it must be flexible enough to adjust to the stage in the alliance’s life cycle.