Research On Strategic Alliance Risk

Strategic alliance is a series of inter-firm cooperative agreements aimed at achieving competitive advantage among the partners. Such alliances are usually forged when any single firm finds it either too difficult or too costly to pursue worthwhile business objectives on its own. Although some firms have benefited from strategic alliances, many others have been disappointed by a poor performance, and still more are skeptical about what an alliance could achieve for them. The number of alliances increases every year, but the ratio of the alliance disorganization has been maintained in a high level.Strategic alliances are generally seen as a risky strategy whose success is often unrelated to an individual partner firm's efforts. In this paper, I have studied the risks in the strategic alliances, research the correlation between alliance risk and alliance disorganization.First, we discuss the roles of relational risk and performance risk in alliance. Relational risk is concerned with the probability that partner firms lack commitment to the alliance and that their possible opportunistic behavior could undermine the prospects of an alliance. Performance risk is the probability that an alliance may fail even when partner firms commit themselves fully to the alliance. Despite the best efforts of the partner firms, an alliance can still fail because of internal and external factors (other than the relational risk discussed earlier).Then, with the help of AHP analysis, we construct evaluation system of relational risk and performance risk in alliance. Using Logistic Model, the conclusion is tested that alliance disorganization is related with alliance risks.Managing the different kinds of risk in strategic alliances is a complex task. To the end, we propose a comprehensive framework of risk management with four components. The different kinds of risk managements are choose from four orientations——aim, contract, team spirit and culture. So, the components of the framework provide insights and guidelines for managers to effectively deal with the major risks in the management of alliances.