Strategic alliances and models of collaboration

The purpose of this paper is to engage in a comprehensive review of the research on strategic alliances in the last decade.

After presenting a typology of diverse alliance governance forms, reviews recent analyses of alliance formation, implementation management, and performance outcomes of collaborative activities.

Strategic alliances developed and propagated as formalized interorganizational relationships. These cooperative arrangements represent new organizational formation that seeks to achieve organizational objectives better through collaboration than through competition.

The paper provides future research directions on partner selection, networks patterns and processes, understanding the integration in alliances through fusion, fission, and how to manage developmental dynamics.

Concludes with some future directions for theory construction and empirical research.