Strategic alliances have emerged as an important element of firms' strategies. Following suit, research on alliances has blossomed, concentrating on the various forms alliances take, the reasons of their existence, and increasingly embracing questions of alliance management and governance tasks. However, most contributions which address the alliance governance problem are yet rather vague and selective in their conception of alliance governance structures as well as the factors which influence their suitability. The aim of this book is to further advance our understanding of alliance governance and to provide recommendations on the problem of alliance governance design. Following the configurational approach, Sascha Albers develops a comprehensive model of alliance governance systems. He identifies relevant structural and instrumental design parameters and analyzes major contingency factors, including member firms' cultures and alliance experience, number of alliance partners, and trust, which impact the design parameters' suitability. He finally deducts five configurations, or ideal types, of alliance governance systems which can be regarded as blueprints for the practitioner and as platform for further research for the alliance scholar. Potential readership includes scholars of strategic management and organization theory, interested students in these areas as well as practitioners involved in formulating and implementing alliance strategies.

Erfolgreiche Unternehmensallianzen sind heute für viele Unternehmen absolut wichtig, wenn es darum geht, sich einen Wettbewerbsvorteil zu sichern. "Mastering Alliance Strategy" ist ein umfassender Leitfaden zum Thema Allianzstrategie. Er entwirrt die haarigsten Themen rund um das Allianzmanagement und erläutert die aktuellsten Gedanken, Ideen und Praktiken für eine effektive Nutzung von Partnerschaften. Ob absoluter Anfänger oder erfahrener Allianzexperte, ob Fachmann im Bereich Unternehmensentwicklung, Linienmanager oder Führungskraft - hier lernen Sie, Allianzen besser zu verstehen und auszunutzen. Die Autoren zeigen, dass das Erfolgsgeheimnis nicht nur in den Feinheiten einer Vereinbarung liegt, sondern auch in der Strategie und Organisation hinter dieser Vereinbarung. Aus ihrer langjährigen Forschungsarbeit und Berichterstattung präsentieren sie hier Ideen und Tools zu den vier Kernelementen einer effektiven Allianzstrategie: Planen der Allianz und Entwerfen der Vereinbarung, Managen der Allianz, sobald sie gegründet ist, Vorteile ziehen aus einer Konstellation von Allianzen, Aufbau einer internen Allianzfähigkeit Verständlich geschrieben. Mit anschaulichem Beispielmaterial. "Mastering Alliance Strategy" - die ultimative Pflichtlektüre für alle Unternehmensstrategen und Führungskräfte.

Managing Alliance Portfolios and Networks is a volume in the book series Research in Strategic Alliances that focuses on providing a robust and comprehensive forum for new scholarship in the field of strategic alliances. In particular, the books in the series cover new views of interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks and models, significant practical problems of alliance organization and management, and emerging areas of inquiry. The series also includes comprehensive empirical studies of selected segments of business, economic, industrial, government, and non-profit activities with wide prevalence of strategic alliances. Through the ongoing release of focused topical titles, this book series seeks to disseminate theoretical insights and practical management information that should enable interested professionals to gain a rigorous and comprehensive understanding of the field of strategic alliances. Managing Alliance Portfolios and Networks contains contributions by leading scholars in the field of strategic alliance research. The 9 chapters in this volume deal with significant issues relating to the management of alliance portfolios and alliance networks. These issues range from value creation in alliance ecosystems, management lessons from social enterprise, and a configurational perspective on alliance management capabilities, to the competition dynamics of alliance networks, internationalization of an alliance portfolio, and structural embeddedness of alliance networks during industry convergence. The chapters contain empirical as well as conceptual treatments of the selected topics, and collectively present a wide-ranging review of the noteworthy research perspectives on managing alliance portfolios and alliance networks.

This insightful book examines the role of micro-politics in the life of global industry associations. Karsten Ronit addresses the various rules and norms required to administer these associations, highlighting the importance of managing variations in complex member demands and responding to expectations in their institutional environment.

Strategic alliances - voluntary, long-term collaborations between firms to achieve their objectives - are attracting increasing attention in business schools because of their growing prevalence among organizations today. Mastering the art of managing strategic alliances allows firms to radically improve their performance and this book provides a detailed, evidence-based approach outlining the design, management, and evaluation of these alliances. Elaborating on the decision-making structures apparent during each stage in the alliance life-cycle and in elucidating cases from across the world, Strategic Alliance Management offers a systematic framework that provides insights into the development and deployment of alliances. Concluding with the three alliance paradoxes managers must address to design and manage their alliances effectively and efficiently, this text offers a profound vision of the key decision-making rationales and processes inherently related to strategic alliances. As such, it will be required reading for students studying the subject and a valuable supplementary reading source to those studying strategic management more generally. A website run by the authors, can be found here: http://www.strategic-alliance-management.com/

This volume provides an introduction to aviation management covering all major actors and processes, the fundamental structures, and the economic and regulatory background of the industry. It comprises contributions from experienced practitioners of the aviation industry and from scholars in that field.

Strategic Alliance Management presents an academically grounded alliance development framework, detailing eight stages of alliance development with consideration for specific management challenges. For each stage, readers are presented with theoretical insights, evidence-based managerial guidelines and a business case illustration. Other chapters consider alliance attributes, alliance competences, and alliance challenges, and cover topics such as innovation, co-branding, co-opetition, business ecosystems, alliance professionals, alliance capabilities, societal alliances and a tension-based alliance mindset. This fully revised 3rd edition leverages the book’s strengths in marrying theory with practical insight. All the chapters have been updated to reflect the current academic literature, whilst new international case studies are incorporated throughout. Two new chapters feature in this edition, considering the importance of the mindset required to successfully navigate alliance arrangements, and emerging alliance practices, exploring how new technologies, sustainability and the external environment have disrupted alliance management. In-chapter text boxes discussing emerging themes provide opportunity for discussion and analysis. The textbook remains highly valuable core and recommended reading for postgraduate students of Strategic Management and Corporate Strategy, MBA and Executive MBA, as well as reflective practitioners in the field. Online resources include chapter-by-chapter lecture slides, two long case studies and short interviews with alliance executives.

Economic and business growth is driven by the continuous re-evaluation and optimization of current policies and practices. By implementing more effective procedures, businesses can increase their levels of competitiveness. Factors Affecting Firm Competitiveness and Performance in the Modern Business World is an authoritative reference source for the latest scholarly research on the most appropriate measures and initiatives for firms to become more competitive within various sectors. Incorporating interdisciplinary perspectives through theoretical foundations and real-world case studies, this book is ideally designed for professionals, practitioners, upper-level students, policy makers, and managers interested in the optimization of business performance.

The world economy in which we are living poses challenges that lead to a realization that 'more of the same' will be difficult to sustain. This provides an illustration that, in order to create new or modified knowledge practices, strengthen customer relationships and thus positively influence customer satisfaction, organizations must be flexible in configuring (combining) knowledge and knowledge structures in a way that is appropriate for delivering value to the customer. It must simultaneously develop effective strategies for updating the knowledge of its staff members necessary for underpinning the creation and delivery of appropriate knowledge services. Thus, unlearning (forgetting) becomes a critical means for organizational success. The ECKM community of scholars has already initiated dialogue that links its particular strengths to innovation issues. This conference aims to further that dialogue by attracting leading edge work that leverages the ECKM community's in-depth understanding of learning and unlearning to better understand knowledge management. Our aim is to stimulate breakthrough research streams linking learning, unlearning and knowledge management. How can organizations tailor, use, and extend techniques and tools from knowledge management for improving their business practices and processes? Building upon existing work on knowledge management (KM) and organizational learning, the conference will promote interdisciplinary approaches from computer science and information systems, business, management and organization science as well as cognitive science. Emphasis will be put on systematic learning from experience, KM tools and KM success factors. A special interest belongs to knowledge management initiatives which are lightweight (i.e., do not place considerable additional burden on users and KM experts), allow an incremental adoption (i.e., do not require large up-front investment before any return of investment is at least visible), and are flexible regarding frequent changes in experts and topics. Continuing the success of the ECKM conference series since 2000, the 2015 conference will provide an international communication forum bringing together academia and industry for discussing the progress made and addressing the challenges faced by continuous learning in knowledge-intensive organizations.