Frontiers of Strategic Alliance Research
Negotiating, Structuring and Governing Partnerships

The art of alliance management is an integral part of the practice of business in the twenty-first century. Collaborations between companies provide synergistic ideas and a combined capability that surpasses what each firm can achieve, individually. This handbook comprehensively encompasses the latest research in the expanding fields of strategic alliances and interfirm collaborations, featuring twenty-eight contributions from leading international experts. It will enable the reader to develop skills in negotiating with a prospective partner firm; write alliance agreements that specify the rights, responsibilities, obligations, restraints and safeguards for each partner; govern and manage the relationship, taking into account behavioural and psychological considerations, as well as the power balance over the life of the alliance; and handle termination or dissolution of the agreement when appropriate. It will be an invaluable resource for graduate students and academic researchers in business management, as well as the consultants, executives and lawyers who negotiate, form, and manage alliances.

Preface: the evolution of alliance scholarship; Part I. Theory and Future Directions in Alliance Research: 1. Frontiers of alliance research; 2. Understanding contracting behavior: the role of power; 3. Rationality in theoretical modeling of collaborative ventures; 4. The transaction cost theory of equity joint ventures: past, present and future; 5. Using alliances to test core theories of strategic and international management: the case of the resource-based view; Part II. Alliances in the Context of Rapid Technological Change and Disruptions: 6. Responding to digital disruption through alliances; 7. Performance differences of jointly-owned firms in the US electronics sector; Part III. Microfoundational Processes and Coordination between Partners: 8. Learning to coordinate in alliances: towards a microfoundation framework; 9. Social psychological foundations of alliance cooperation: the role of identity and identification in shared alliance interest; 10. A multi-level framework of alliance management: the paradox of coopetition; Part IV. Alliance Management Capability: 11. The evolution of alliance capability in large organizations: the case of alliance management; 12. Strategic animation in global professional services: a case for virtual integration processes in network organizations; 13. The organizational design of the alliance management system: a contingency perspective; Part V. Alliance Scope: 14. Alliance scope: theoretical and empirical perspectives; 15. The effect of alliance scope on knowledge flows; Part VI. Alliance Portfolios and Multilateral Alliances: 16. Technology alliance portfolios and radical innovation: the role of different alliance portfolio information processing mechanisms; 17. Multilateral alliances: a review and research agenda; Part VII. Multimarket and Multinational Alliances: 18. Multimarket competition and alliance formation; 19. Profitability of joint ventures abroad: explaining a new empirical puzzle; 20. Think globally, act cooperatively: entrepreneurial partnering between Invs and Mnes; Part VIII. Innovation Networks and Alliances: 21. Increasing knowledge complexity and informal networks in the information age; 22. Characteristics of innovation-driven interfirm alliances, 1957–2006: analysis and research directions; Part IX. Fostering Trust and the Impact of Culture: 23. The double-edged sword of high expectations: presumptive trust, reflective trust and satisfaction in international joint ventures; 24. Culture and cross-border alliances: unholy matrimony; Part X. The Evolution, Survival or Termination of Alliances: 25. Should I stay or should I go now? Integrating the learning and selection views on firms' successive make-or-ally decisions for product innovation; 26. Surviving alliance network evolution during industry convergence: observations and future research directions; Part XI. Public-Private Partnerships: 27. Pay to play: connecting university research funding to licensing outcomes; 28. Multiple partners in public-private collaborations: beyond the dyadic forms of cooperation.

Farok J. Contractor is University Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University and Fellow of the Academy of International Business. A leading expert in corporate alliances, amongst other subjects, Contractor has authored over 150 scholarly papers, nine books, and has received over 10,500 scholarly citations of his works by other academics around the world.
Jeffrey J. Reuer is the Guggenheim Endowed Chair and Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado. He has served as an Associate Editor for the Strategic Management Journal, a Consulting Editor for the Journal of International Business Studies, and a founding Editor in Chief of the Strategic Management Review. He is a Fellow of the Strategic Management Society.