Process Capabilities and Value Generation in Alliance Portfolios

Sarkar Mb (), Preet S. Aulakh () and Anoop Madhok ()
Additional contact information
Sarkar Mb: Department of Strategic Management, Fox School of Business, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, and Grenoble École de Management, 38003 Grenoble, Cedex 01, France
Preet S. Aulakh: Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada
Anoop Madhok: Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada, and Faculty of Economics and Business, Vrije University, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Organization Science, 2009, vol. 20, issue 3, 583-600

Abstract: This paper develops a multidimensional, process-based conceptualization of alliance portfolio management capability. Arguing that such a capability consists of organizational processes to proactively pursue alliance formation opportunities, engage in relational governance, and coordinate knowledge and strategies across the portfolio, we examine the impact of such a capability on organizational outcomes in the context of formal structure (alliance function) and strategy (portfolio diversity). Using data from 235 firms, we find that these three processes have a positive effect on a firm's alliance portfolio capital, and some of these effects are conditioned by a formal alliance function and diversity of the portfolio. Whereas the ability of proactive formation and relational governance processes to create value is further strengthened in the presence of an alliance function, that of the coordination dimension is weakened. Furthermore, the benefits of relational governance are strengthened for firms with diverse portfolios, whereas the benefits of coordination processes are weakened. We discuss implications of these findings for the alliance and network literature, and in general, for firm heterogeneity. In summary, we find evidence that variance in process-based capabilities to manage alliance portfolios can explain performance heterogeneity among firms.

Keywords: alliance portfolios; alliance management capability; portfolio capital; organizational processes; network diversity; interorganizational value creation; alliance function (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (53)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1080.0390 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:20:y:2009:i:3:p:583-600

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Organization Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().