International strategic alliances: design and management

The use of international strategic alliances as a major participation strategy continues to grow in international business. Implementing this strategy demands a good knowledge of the problems and prospects associated with alliance management. After reading this research you should be able to understand how multinational companies link value chains in international strategic alliances; to Understand the importance of choosing the right partners for alliances; to Know the important characteristics to look for in potential alliance partners; to Know the differences between equity-based international joint ventures and other types of international cooperative alliances; to Understand the nature of alliance management structures and how to select the appropriate structure for an alliance organization; to Appreciate the unique problems in human resource management faced by managers in alliance organizations; to Realize the importance of inter-firm commitment and trust for building successful international strategic alliances; to understand how multinational companies assess the performance of their international strategic alliances; to Know when companies should continue or dissolve their international strategic alliances, to learn about companies using a dedicated unit to manage strategic alliance. Because strategic alliances are fast and flexible ways of gaining complementary resources, they are increasingly among the most popular strategies that companies use to develop new products and to expand into new geographic areas or market