Business alliance success: the influence of alliance competence, idiosyncratic resources, and relational factors

The use of business alliances as a strategic option has grown tremendously over the past decade. Firms are seeking partners, both within and across industries, with the valuable resources necessary to survive and thrive. While the use of alliances has increased, the success rate has remained poor. Thus a key question is: What factors contribute to alliance success?

Researchers have offered three views to explain alliance success. The resource-based view focuses on firm's resources. The underlying premise is that when alliance partners possess valuable, rare, and difficult to imitate resources, then the alliance should be successful. The competence-based view suggests that alliances are successful when firms develop an alliance competence that allows them to secure, develop, and maintain alliances. Finally, the relational factors view holds that when alliances are characterized by factors such as trust, commitment, and cooperation that they will be successful.

In general, past research has tested one or two views of alliance success. This research develops and tests a theoretically grounded model of alliance success. The findings suggest that the three views of alliance success are complementary. Therefore, the integrative model developed and tested in this research offers a more complete explanation of alliance success.