Information and communication in strategic alliances

This dissertation brings to the forefront the informational and communicational aspects of strategic alliances. It examines how different stages of the lifecycle of an alliance are influenced by the communication capabilities of the partners and the interface through which the partners interact. More specifically, the dissertation investigates (i) the impact of firms' ability to exchange a large information amount (IT capability) on the alliance design, and in particular on the governance structure and the alliance scope, (ii) the choice between information amount and information richness in the post-formation stage, (iii) how this choice influences changes in the levels of trust between the partners, and (iv) implications of the above for alliance performance. These issues are examined by extending existing communication media theories to the domain of interorganizational communication and by combining them with contractual and competence perspectives. Contributions at a broader level include (i) the delineation of the boundaries between contractual and competence perspectives, (ii) an extension of the resource-based view showing how alliances can be designed to leverage a certain class of resources and capabilities and (iii) an extension of transaction cost economics suggesting that information richness can be used to mitigate the holdup problem. Evidence for the arguments is provided from a mix of survey and qualitative data. The survey data were collected from two groups of people: Full members of the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals and alumni participants of the INSEAD executive program on strategic alliances. The qualitative data were collected through face-to-face interviews with key informants.