Feedback to Activities – Cooperative Strategy By Distance Learning
lesson 2. Different Perspectives on Alliances
This session describes the varied perspectives from which alliances can be viewed, notably economic perspectives, game theory, strategic management theory, resource dependency theory, and organizational theory perspectives. It also emphasized the importance of trust in alliances.
After completing the reading and listening to the audio lectures, please answer the following questions.
Q1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the economic perspectives on the rational for Strategic alliances?
Q2. What contribution does management theory make to understanding alliances?
Q3. What contribution does organization theory make to understanding strategic alliances?
Please refer to the guided answers in the Activity Feedback folder under Session 2.
Feedback to Activities – Cooperative Strategy By Distance Learning
Session 2: Different Perspectives on Alliances
Q1.What are the strengths and weaknesses of the economic perspectives on the rational for Strategic alliances?
Feedback:
- Explanations outside the economic paradigm (homo economicus) are not part of the contribution of these theories which is a weakness
- Strategic choice is not dealt with
- Organisation theory is absent
- A major strength however is that the economic theories account for the basic business reasons why alliances help increase a company’s strength in a market.
Q2.What contribution does management theory make to understanding alliances?
Feedback:
- It accounts for the key element of strategic choice
- It focuses on the possibility of achieving sustainable competitive advantage through alliances
- It emphasises the need for trust if a successful alliance is to be achieved.
- It explains how game theory is relevant in alliance theory
- It brings the question of culture to the fore as key to cross-border alliance operation
Q3. What contribution does organization theory make to understanding strategic alliances?
Feedback:
- It emphasises how key resource dependency theory is to explaining why alliances are formed
- It shows how RDP can lead to differential power within the alliance
- It highlights the importance of choosing the most appropriate organisational form for an alliance
- It identifies the conditions in which the different forms of alliance are most appropriate
3. Partner Selection and Alliance Negotiation
This session explains the various alliance forms and identifies the criteria is deciding how to choose one. It also deals with an alliance partner selection, the importance of strategic and cultural fit and identifies the major things to consider in negotiating alliances.
DL Reading List International Cooperative Strategy – Session 3
After completing the reading and listening to the audio lectures, please answer the following questions.
Q1. What are the main things that should be borne in mind in selecting an alliance partner?
Q2.What forces influence the choice of alliance form?
Q3. How must negotiation in an alliance differ from that typically found in M&A?
Q4. What forces influence the choice of alliance form?