A Resource -Based View of Strategic Alliances: Organizational Capabilities, Governance, and Performance

Abstract

Based on the U.S. steel industry data, the results are largely consistent with the general proposition. The results associate some firm resources with alliancing behavior and industry alliancing behavior with increased competitiveness in terms of increased profitability and labor productivity even as prices fall. The pattern of strategic alliances in the industry that emerges is consistent with the efficiency hypothesis that alliances lead to diffusion of best practices although the market power interpretation is not negated. These findings inform the best practice transfer and are relevant to the anti-competition view of horizontal alliances and should inform the horizontal alliancing-competition debate.