Investigation Into Dynamic Alliance And Its Management Mechanism

A dynamic alliance (DA) is a new form of organization of which the function and applicative scopes have gone beyond the single requirement for agility within manufacturing field compared with it's original purposes. It's function has been extended to a number of domains such as knowledge creation and marketing. In order to interpret this economic phenomena and take a good advantage of it, such problems as selection of alliance partner, benefit allocation, organization learning and management mechanism of DA are explored systematically in this dissertation.Firstly, selection of alliance partner is a critical decision in formation of DA. Several problems including consideration of variation in estimates of some indefinite items in the course of evaluation by experts, confidence level of evaluation results and limitation of selective methods to single partner resulting in lack of optimation of partner's network are seldom investigated in the existing researches. An instrument for selection of partner with consideration of such dimensions as quality, technology and performance, etc., is constructed. In view of difficulty in precise estimate of some items and the effect of such factors on the weights of items of DA with different targets as subjective evaluation of item's weight by appraisers, importance of items in decision-making and reliability of estimate, a set value statistical method is put forward. In order to determine the final combination of alliance partners, objective optimization is made based on the network relationships among candidate partners, making sure validity from the perspective of individual partner and as a whole.Secondly, Researches on benefit allocation in DA by means of game play theory are focused only on discussion and application of Shapley solution, and are lack of systematic analysis from bargaining perspective.Based on 5 items of Nash axioms, this dissertation presents a game model for benefit allocation between partners of a two-partner DA and analyzes Nash solution, alliance solution and Rubinstein solution, and extends a solution into a case of multi-partner DA. A mechanism of design of DA is proposed for benefit allocation agreed upon by all members in the alliance.As for the management mechanism of DA, in view of deficiency of current theories and methods, the focus of research is put on performance evaluation, protection of core competence, development of trust and relationship capital. In order to reduce high failure rate in setting up a DA, a balanced scorecard is introduced into evaluation of DA, which integrates customer satisfaction, internal process, organizational learning and growth activities into evaluation instrument besides financial dimension. A sample set of secondary items for evaluation is given. In addition, losing channels of knowledge assets forming core competence of members of a DA, and classification, source and consequence of risks faced in partners'intellectual property right are analyzed with a proposal of risk–preventing measures. Functional mechanism of trust is proved in virtue of game theory with some measures suggested to develop a trust system and social relation capital and some valuable discussions of effect of alliance culture on them given.Although organizational learning plays a key role in maintenance and development of DA, there still exists lack of systematic research on learning process and it's effect on creation of knowledge. This dissertation carries out research from such two perspectives as incremental learning and critical learning. Incremental learning model of DA is constructed on the basis of SECI model and concept of"Ba"brought forward by Nonaka. A DA is able to perform incremental and spiral cycle of knowledge creation by means of knowledge field and dynamic learning cycle. Critical learning model of DA is constructed based on concepts of single loop and double loop put forward by Argyris, who effectively depicts increasingly developed knowledge transfer and creative mind and knowledge creation derived from conflicts among alliance partners.Finally, at conclusion and outlook, major research results and limitations are summed up, and several key issues are put forward for further research based on present conclusions.