Chapter 12 - Strategic Alliances Flashcards
Benefits of strategic alliances
Shared risks
Benefits of having complementary resources
Quicker development
4 key principles successful companies adhere to when forming an SA are:
Collaboration is competition in a different form
Harmony is not the most important measure of success
Cooperation has limits; companies must defend against competitive compromise
Learning from partners is paramount
Why are Asian companies more successful in SA
Tend to be intrinsically more respective and willing to put more effort into learning
See opportunity to develop new FSA and not only as a form of cost cutting
Have clear learning objectives regarding what they want to achieve
Focus their efforts on acquiring new knowledge
Trouble laggards
Trying to find a quick fix for their own deficiencies
Surging latecomers
Seeking to fill specific capability gaps
4 principles in order to avoid a vicious cycle of increasing dependency
Outsourcing to provide a competitive product cannot replace the need to build FSAs over the long term
Senior managers should consider the negative consequences of outsourcing in terms of capability losses
Senior managers should be aware of the cumulative that an individuals outsourcing decision can have in terms of creating a vicious cycle of deepening dependence on outsiders
If FSAs do not dissipate towards a partner in an outsourcing relationship, they must be rejuvenated and strengthened as quickly as possible
Mobility
The ease of moving the complete physical instructions of how to duplicate an FSA
The more mobile, the easier to diffuse
Embeddedness
It cannot easily be shared through communication
Hamel et al. advise companies to take steps to limit the easy replicability and unintended diffusion:
Limiting the formal scope of the alliance
Carefully consider where the alliance should be physically located
Establish incremental, performance-related checkpoints
Gatekeepers to control informal information
Limitations
Costs of an alliance
Learning race
