Alliance Entrepreneurship and Supply Chain Performance in Iran’s Automobile Manufacturing Industry: Proposing and Testing a Model

Abstract

One of the solutions to improve auto manufacturers’ performance is forming alliances with their competitors. Recent researches imply that if these alliances follow entrepreneurial activities it will lead to the creation of a new construct: “alliance entrepreneurship”. Carrying out this phenomenon in internal mechanisms of manufacturers leads to higher supply chain performance for them. In the present study we aimed to propose and test a comprehensive model for alliance entrepreneurship. We reviewed recent proposed models relating alliances to propose a new model. Our conceptual model consists of alliance entrepreneurship as the main exogenous construct, supply chain performance as the main endogenous variable, and three mediator constructs: degree of integration, success of alliance, and corporate strategy. Structural equation modeling using partial least squares (PLS) is applied to comprehensively test the research model. Our findings indicate the significant impacts of alliance entrepreneurship on supply chain performance through three path-mediated.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, alliances, alliance entrepreneurship, supply chain performance, degree of integration, success of alliance, corporate strategy

JEL Classification: M13, L19, L62