Knowledge Transfers in Alliances: Exploring the Facilitating Role of Information Technology

Although firms in many industries have been forming alliances at an increasing rate in their effort to develop new competencies by learning from their partners, many alliances fail to achieve their learning goals. In this study, we investigate how information technology (IT) can help firms to deal with this problem. We explicate four mechanisms through which IT will enable knowledge flows between alliance partners: decrease the knowledge dispersion inside an organization and increase knowledge transparency; provide the infrastructure to create multiple links between alliance partners; enable weak ties among people in the partnering firms; and increase communication and social interaction. Our findings based on data from 272 firms suggest that knowledge flows to a firm are enhanced when the focal firm and its partner in an alliance have high IT intensity. We find support for our argument that IT is a necessary complementary resource that facilitates learning from partners in alliances.