Alliance Dynamics for Entrepreneurial Firms

Abstract

Small firms are thought to encounter various difficulties implementing strategic alliances. Due to these problems, they may be less able to reap the benefits of alliance adaptation, and the changes that do occur in alliances may not coincide with a small firm's interests. The evidence we present on contractual renegotiations in alliances suggests that small firms are no more or less likely to adjust their alliances' contracts in general. However, small firms tend to bear inefficiencies of two kinds in their collaborations. First, they are less likely to adapt alliances in the presence of governance misalignments. Second, our sampled small firms were more prone to make transaction-specific investments, which can stimulate "ex post "hold-up in the form of contractual renegotiations. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2008.

A start-up in interaction with its partners

“…Indeed, the IMP literature argues that as the 974 relationship between partners develops through interaction, they have to agree on more details of their 975 relationship than in the beginning when 'everything' is still possible (Håkansson et al, 2009). This 976 pattern in the evolution of the interaction modes over time emphasises that a focus on a single type of 977 action, as described in the work of Thorgren et al (2012) and Ariño et al (2008), limits our 978 understanding of how action evolves over time. 979…”

“…and Furrer (2010), Lui and Ngo (2005) and Ariño et al (2008), into organisational action in 988 relationship has mainly focused on its antecedents; what triggers action by a partner and why does a 989 partner chooses a particular action? Although it is important to be able to determine in what situation a 990 particular interaction mode can be used, it does not say anything about whether that is the best action 991 to use.…”

“…For example, Thorgren, Wincent, and Boter (2012) demonstrated that small firms are 91 more likely to comply with group norms than large firms. Also, Ariño et al (2008) found that 92 entrepreneurial firms are more likely to avoid the problem of governance misalignment than 93 established companies. These previous studies addressed a single type of action in each paper, i.e.…”

“…Their lack of experience, reputation and resources 74 makes it more difficult to know how to act in a relationship (Ariño, Ragozzino, & Reuer, 2008). 75…”

Governance of a public sector joint venture: the control challenges of dominated owners

“…Some studies are emerging on the dynamics in interorganizational relationships within management literature in the private sector context (e.g. Ariño, Ragozzino and Reuer 2008;Faems et al 2008;Pernot and Roodhooft 2014), but the topic is largely unexplored in the intermunicipal cooperation literature. The paper contributes to the literature on intergovernmental cooperation in three ways.…”