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This paper aims to propose to politicize partner choice as a discourse that rationalizes, legitimizes and justifies the choice of partners by underlining economic, cultural and institutional differences to (re)create power relations. By reconceptualizing partner choice as a discourse, the paper challenges the established view of partner choice according to international business and management studies as a rational and strategic behavior based on resource complementarity, best practices and win–win situations.

Based on the longitudinal study of Israeli–Korean business collaboration, which includes in-depth interviews, observations and media texts, this paper uses critical discourse analysis (CDA) to demystify partner choice as neither a neutral nor an objective behavior to unveil its discursive construction and embeddedness in power relations.

The actors on both sides of the Israeli–Korean business collaboration evoke resource complementary discourse between “Israeli innovation” and “Korean productivity” to rationalize their partner choice as a win–win situation. CDA demonstrates how both sides are engaged in a “borrowing” process from east-to-west and head-to-hands postcolonial images to (re)produce hierarchy between the parties. While east–west mapping remained almost unchallengeable, the reversal, crossing and blurring of the Israel-to-Korea knowledge transfer direction provides a counter-narrative to resource complementarity discourse.

The resource complementarity discourse supported by east–west mapping and “head–hands” justifications for partner choice reveals the lingering presence of postcolonial images, imagery and imagination. By taking two nations without substantial troubled memories, histories and relations, the paper broadens the picture beyond national contexts, emphasizing the importance of borrowing and translation from postcolonial vocabulary to non-colonial situations.

This study aims to examine the international joint venture (IJV) partnership strategy in Europe from an institutional perspective. A firm operating in a foreign country via an IJV can partner with a local firm from the host country, a firm from the same home country or a firm from a third country. This study takes the first step in examining the determinants of these partner choices.

This study tests hypotheses based on a data set of 637 IJVs in Europe.

Foreign firms are less likely to operate in a partnership with a firm from the home country or from a third country (compared to operate in a partnership with a local firm) when the host country institutions are weaker or institutional distance is larger. Also, foreign firms’ disinclination to operate in a partnership with a firm from the home/third country when the host country institutions are weaker or institutional distance is larger will diminish with greater host-country experience.

This study provides important insights for firms for evaluating partner choice and potential collaborations in the European region with heterogenous institutions.

The partner choice among the above three forms has been neglected in the literature. This study first conceptualized that the institutional profile of the host country and institutional distance between the host country and the home country can determine the partner choice.

This study re-evaluates the criteria in the choice of exchange partners from the buyer’s and seller’s perspective within the context of inclusive tour production and reveals priorities to such criteria among the business actors, providing theoretical frameworks for a wider understanding of the criteria within a tourism context. The study is based on a study of cooperative relationships between European tour operators and Norwegian sub-suppliers. It deploys a qualitative research approach (personal interviews) inspired by grounded theory. The resultant data present critical three consideration embracing (1) market capacity (its ability to acquire customers), (2) purchase price and the attaching conditions and (3) confidence/reliability as criteria of selecting the exchange partners. Lastly nine future agendas are suggested in a bid to theory development.

The purpose of this paper is to address internationalisation of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by specifically focussing on collaborative entry modes. Despite significant research done on market entry and internationalisation strategies of firms, the use of collaborative entry modes by SMEs during internationalisation has not received a lot of attention. The authors contribute to foreign market entry studies by analysing the influences of cognitive dimensions on collaborative entry mode choice (equity vs non-equity modes) of SMEs in their international markets.

The authors analyse the influences of cognitive dimensions on the choice between equity-based vs non-equity-based collaborative entry modes. The empirical sample consists of internationalisation strategies of 345 Italian SMEs, where the authors used a questionnaire to collect the data. The authors use structural equation modelling to analyse influences of factors like asymmetric information, informal institutional distance, time trends of country, perception of size and resources of potential host country partners, and perception of host country partners’ power on this important market entry mode.

The results show that high informal institutional distance leads to preference of non-equity-based collaborative entry mode by Italian SMEs. The authors also find that positive time trends of the host country, positive perception of size and resource of the local partner, as well as the local partners’ power leads to preference of equity-based collaborative entry mode by Italian SMEs.

This study focusses on an ignored aspect of market entry strategies, i.e., equity vs non-equity collaborative entry mode choice of SMEs. The authors use insights from resource-based view and cognitive dimensions literature, to address the influences of five cognitive dimensions on the collaborative entry mode choice of SMEs during their internationalisation.

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to attempt to answer the related questions of how and why supply chain partners are chosen. Research objectives are to understand how and why collaborative partners are chosen, by learning the actual decision‐making processes and key factors in partner selection.

A mixed methods approach was chosen, comprising: a focused literature review, to identify key issues, and informal interviews, leading to the development of a Partner Negotiation Model; a multiple case study approach, involving formal interviews about two partnerships, supplemented by documentation, contracts, correspondence and other records; and some manual data analysis and a qualitative research tool. The whole resulted in identification of significant issues for partner negotiation and selection.

Contrary to accepted theory in the alliance, partner selection, and decision‐making literature, the results show that alliance partners are chosen through a complex negotiation process rather than rational selection. The research and interviews with software industry collaborators suggest roles for factors such as complexity, cyclic negotiation, several types of partners, several levels of alliance formation, and hidden factors, such as personal friendship or perceived reputation. Overall, the problem of collaborative partner selection was found to be much more complex than expected.

Research results are limited by the small sample of partnerships reviewed, but the results can be used as a starting‐point for further larger‐scale studies.

Supply chain partners in business can use these results to help them better understand the process and criteria for future supply partner selection.

The results may be used to develop a set of partner selection recommendations for practitioners. For specific firms that become involved in organizing supply chain alliances, the results of this work will provide decision support in terms of choosing among partners or indeed whether to engage in a particular relationship.

The present study develops an international joint venture (IJV) partner selection framework to explain the choice between state-owned or privately owned local partners in the context of emerging economies. We suggest that once an IJV is selected as the mode of entry, a multinational enterprise's strategic motivations – that is, efficiency seeking, market seeking and knowledge seeking – will influence its choice of IJV partner type: state-owned enterprise or privately owned firm. We argue that liability of foreignness and rule of law moderate the multinational enterprise's selection of IJV partner type.

In this study, we seek to broaden the research focus in the strategic alliance literature from a firm's “partner strategy” to its “network strategy” by linking a firm's partnering choices to changes in its network position over time. Using data on all underwriting syndicates in Canada over nearly 40 years, we conceptualize and model the interplay between an investment bank's own and its partners’ syndicate participation. Our findings indicate that the lead banks, which have greater discretion in choosing syndicate partners than co-lead banks, are more likely to make partner selections that create bridging positions that provide access to timely and non-redundant information as well as opportunities to play a broker role across unconnected others. We also find, however, that lead banks’ bridging positions deteriorate when they form ties with other lead banks. Network-based competitive advantages are thus influenced by network opportunities and constraints as well as partner-specific concerns, suggesting that new insights into the dynamics of interfirm networks and competitive advantage of firms are possible within this broader view.

India has a distinct family hierarchy and a vertical collectivistic culture. Indian traditional cultural norms discourage young adults from having romantic or sexual relationships before marriage. Romantic liaisons and marriages are fiercely opposed outside the caste and social network. Despite this cultural practice, research in the last decade demonstrated that more young adults in India engage in premarital romantic relationships and prefer a marriage of choice. However, they strongly wish their parents to approve of their partner and arrange their marriage. This increasing trend of love-cum-arranged marriages could be considered how Indian culture adapts to the demands of modernization strongly impelled by globalization. This chapter discusses the dynamics of change in the romantic and marital agency among young adults in India. First, the authors provide a brief historical introduction to the Indian marital system. Then, the authors discuss the changing cultural dimensions that promote marital choice and independence in partner selection (e.g., filial piety). Further, the authors provide an overview of the trends in premarital romantic relationships in India. In addition, the authors discuss the distress and conflict in Indian families due to the increasing premarital romantic and sexual relationships among Indian youth, as evidenced by eloped marriages, forced marriages, and honor killings.

The purpose of this paper is to fill the theoretical void in the discussion of effects of alliance portfolios on firm performance by studying the moderating role of a firm’s strategic positioning.

A fixed effects, autoregressive panel model on a comprehensive, longitudinal sample of large and medium-sized publicly traded companies in the USA.

The effect of alliance portfolios on firm performance is conditional on the firm’s strategic positioning.

The results may not be applicable to firms outside the USA or small firms.

Executives should craft their alliance portfolios while considering the strategic positioning of their firms.

This paper presents the first study of alliance portfolios that uses a comprehensive, multi-industry sample while considering firms’ strategic positioning. The paper is the first to jointly study characteristics of alliance portfolios and firm strategies.

The aim of this study is to (1) construct a standard framework for assessing the capability of bioenergy enterprises' digital green innovation partners; (2) quantify the choice of partners for digital green innovation by bioenergy enterprises; (3) propose based on a dual combination empowerment niche digital green innovation field model.

Fuzzy set theory is combined into field theory to investigate resource complementarity. The successful application of the model to a real case illustrates how the model can be used to address the problem of digital green innovation partner selection. Finally, the standard framework and digital green innovation field model can be applied to the practical partner selection of bioenergy enterprises.

Digital green innovation technology of superposition of complementarity, mutual trust and resources makes the digital green innovation knowledge from partners to biofuels in the enterprise. The index rating system included eight target layers: digital technology innovation level, bioenergy technology innovation level, bioenergy green level, aggregated digital green innovation resource level, bioenergy technology market development ability, co-operation mutual trust and cooperation aggregation degree.

This study helps to (1) construct the evaluation standard framework of digital green innovation capability based on the dual combination empowerment theory; (2) develop a new digital green innovation domain model for bioenergy enterprises to select digital green innovation partners; (3) assist bioenergy enterprises in implementing digital green innovation practices.