Strategic Decision Processes in the Realm of Strategic Alliances

Abstract

This chapter constitutes, to the best of my knowledge, the first review of the empirical literature on strategic decision processes in the realm of strategic alliances. I focused my review on those decision processes that are strategic, i.e., that deal with the question of how alliance-related strategies are formulated and implemented, and what impact formulation and implementation have on alliance and partner firm performance. By providing a synthesis of empirical findings on decision processes in interfirm collaborations, I intend to make two contributions: (1) outline the substantial body of knowledge that this research stream — in contrast to the fragmented and incoherent body of research on general alliance processes (Bell et al. 2006; Hennart 2006) — has accumulated, and discuss both its academic and managerial relevance; and (2) based on this review, I suggest a number of promising avenues for future research.

Keywords: Strategic alliances, strategic decision processes, literature review