Understanding the formation of a cross-industry alliance in the knowledge industr

The knowledge industry is comprised of organizations from the private and public sectors that are trying to meet the complex educational demands of learners. It has been posited that learners will increasingly seek educational products that give them the skills necessary to succeed in the workplace. Many higher education institutions are beginning to establish a greater number of strategic alliances with outside organizations in order to secure a position within the emerging knowledge industry. To date, however, little research on alliance formation exists. This comparative case study advances a conceptual framework for understanding alliance formation that will help fill the gap in the existing research. The framework draws from organizational theory and prior research on alliances to explain that the interaction of environmental conditions and organizational factors determines whether, and in what manner, a cross-industry alliance is formed. A recently established alliance between higher education institutions, state government agencies and major automobile companies provided a rich setting to conduct this research. The conceptual framework served as a guide to individually study eight participating organizations. Semi-structured interviews, documents and archives were the primary data sources for this study. The data were first analyzed by using qualitative software, followed by a manual analysis of data matrices. The results of these intensive case studies were compared and contrasted across the three industries. Findings indicated that environmental and organizational conditions are important to understanding alliance formation. Resource uncertainty, competitive forces, and institutional pressures were conditions that especially influenced why and how organizations participated in the alliance. The study also found that the roles of individuals and the element of time were dimensions that impacted alliance formation but are not adequately explained by organizational theory. The results extend previous research towards achieving a more comprehensive theory on alliance formation. Furthermore, lessons were learned from this study that will be useful to practitioners involved in such cross-industry alliances.