Empirical Research On The Firm's Inter- Organizational Learning In The Strategic Alliances

In the present era, core competence is fundamental to the firm's competition and development in the global market. Knowledge theory indicates that the firm is the collection of knowledge. Organizational knowledge, especially the tacit knowledge, is the basis of core competence. However, organizational learning, which includes intra-organizational learning and inter-organizational learning, is the main way to acquire and accumulate the firm's knowledge. The strategic alliance is an important platform for the firm to carry out inter-organizational learning through which the firm can absorb a lot of knowledge and experience. Then knowledge and experience will be transformed into the core competence through the absorption and internalization process of the firm's knowledge, thereby enhancing it's competitive advantages. Therefore, it has important theoretical and practical significance to research inter-organizational learning in the strategic alliance. This paper is around this core issue.The paper is divided into seven chapters. The main contents and findings of each chapter are as follows:Chapter I is the preface. It introduces the research background and research significance, and then designs the overall study. The research design includes research purposes, methods, contents, structure and major innovations.Chapterâ…¡is the theoretical summary. It mainly reviews the literatures on the strategic alliance, the knowledge-based theory of the firm, organizational learning and inter-organizational learning, and then evaluates them so as to draw the conclusions of the paper's research directions and objectives.Chapter III is the outline of the inter-organizational learning in strategic alliances. It analyzes the essential characteristics of inter-organizational learning in strategic alliances. It mainly includes concept and characteristics, types, contents and the process of the inter-organizational learning in strategic alliances.Chapterâ…£is theoretical model and hypotheses. It proposes two models which are the factors of inter-organizational learning in the firm's strategic alliances and the relationship between inter-organizational learning and organizational performance. The first model mainly analyzes the influences of the firm itself, knowledge attribute factors and inter-organizational context factors on inter-organizational learning; In the second model, inter-organizational learning is thought as independent variable, organizational performance is thought as the dependent variable, while the alliance form, scope, competitive regime and control mechanism are introduced as the moderating variables.Chapter V is the data collection and processing. The paper adopts the questionnaires method. First of all, the paper designs the questionnaire and variables. In the designing process, the paper refers the domestic and foreign scholars'mature scales and carries out certain amendments from the characteristics of Chinese firms so as to form the questionnaire of this study. Then, the sample is selected and the questionnaires are handed out. The paper selects Chinese firms, which have strategic alliances as the sample, and the firms'managers are surveyed. Then, it processes the data and carries out the sample descriptive statistics. Finally, it verifies the questionnaire's reliability and validity.Chapter VI is the hypothesis testing. The investigation data is analyzed by the structural equation modeling .The paper verifies if the models and hypotheses fit the data using SPSS15.0 and AMOS7.0. It shows the following results. First, the firm's factors are positive and significant to inter-organizational learning in the strategic alliances. The factors include learning motivation and learning ability of the firm. Among them, learning motivation is the precondition to the firm's effective learning in the alliance. However, the firm's learning ability is the most important factor of the learning. Second, knowledge attribute factors and inter-organizational context factors are negative significant factors of inter-organizational learning in the strategic alliances. Knowledge attribute factors include tacit and ambiguity of knowledge. Inter-organizational context factors involve the knowledge and cultural differences between the firm and its alliance partner. Third, inter-organizational learning in the strategic alliances improves the organizational performance, which it has different effects in different forms, scopes, competitive regimes and control mechanisms of the alliance. The equity alliance, broader scope, the main functional activities not distributing in the same industry, social mechanism is more beneficial to create high performance.Chapter VII is conclusion and outlook. It summarizes the main research results and research findings of the paper. On the basis of that, this paper also proposes management strategies and recommendations for Chinese firms'inter-organizational learning in strategic alliances. At the same time, it sums up the limitations of this study and the future research directions.The innovation of this paper has three aspects as follows. First, The paper researches the inter-organizational learning in strategic alliances. It explores the rules from the perspective of strategic alliances in order to form the basic framework of inter-organizational learning in strategic alliances and enrich the research on organizational learning. Second, it creates the model that includes the factors of inter-organizational learning in strategic alliances. In the model, the factors of inter-organizational learning in strategic alliances include three aspects such as the firm itself, knowledge attributes and inter-organizational context factors. It considers more comprehensive factors and the models are closer to the reality. Third, it establishes the model that is about the relationship between inter-organizational learning in the strategic alliances and organizational performance. The model introduces the alliance form, scope, competitive regime and control mechanism as the moderating variables. So this research is more comprehensive and thorough.