Alliance Capability & Success: A Knowledge-Based Approach.

In the age of alliances, the competitive advantage of a firm would reside in its capability to manage alliances better than peers or competitors. Adopting a knowledge-based approach, we examine the antecedent organizational processes that underlie the development of a firm's Alliance Capability. We find that organizational processes that facilitate the accumulation, codification and sharing of alliance management know-how embedded in the firm's prior and on-going alliance experience, are central to the firm's alliance capability and success. A multi-method approach comprising large sample survey and in-depth fieldwork on the alliance management practices and performance of US-based firms is used to test the theoretical framework. While the present research is restricted to examining the development of alliance capability, it has the potential to inform the development of organizational capabilities in other settings as well.