Modeling international strategic alliances: Understanding the role of culture in the decision-making process and its impact on the alliance's performance

Strategic alliances are partnerships between organizations or firms that work together to attain certain strategic objectives. A large number of existing ventures are unstable and perform poorly despite the structural and contractual arrangements made by the partners to create stability. This thesis begins the study of national culture fit as a first step towards success in American-Mexican international alliances.;The study started by building a conceptual and theoretical framework on the influence of organizational context on leadership profile. Organizational context included national culture and personality of the top partner representatives and, organizational culture of the alliance. Next, it was argued that leadership profile affected the organization form-conduct of the top management team. Finally, American and Mexican co-management behavior, expressed through the level of trust and structural and social bondings influenced the venture partners commitment to long term relationships. The unit of analysis was the strategic alliances and the two top managers, representing both sides of the dyad acted as key informants. American and Mexican managers filled a questionnaire used to assess through self-report attributes of the relationship as well as individual characteristics of the managers.;Results show that national and organizational culture affect the nature of the relationship between American and Mexican partners in international strategic alliances. Also, managers' personalities influence the predominant managerial style as a result of their interaction. Uncertainty avoidance (national culture) contributes toward a more consultative management style predominant in the alliance. Social relationships and task innovation (organizational culture) reflect the short and long term orientation respectively in the alliance. Manager's personality, charged with tension, nervousness and insecurity characterized the social exchange.;Large differences in decision making and communication cause low levels of cohesiveness in the top management team, and reduce the level of trust in the relationship. The two partners see commitment to the continuance of the relationship as being built on high levels of trust. American managers require high levels of structural and social bondings to increase the level of commitment. However, Mexican managers only require high levels of structural bondings to build such commitment.