Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, May 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Apr. 26, 2010). "College of Business." Includes bibliographical references (p. 170-189).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 122-134).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Texas at Dallas, 2007. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-100)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1992. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 264-272).

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / abstract / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning

Economic, technological, informational, social and political factors are driving organisations to pursue different forms to enable them to respond more quickly to a dynamic and changing environment. The relationship between business organisations and stakeholders has been evolving. The internationalisation of firms requires the development of skills and knowledge to enable them to compete through cooperation in the form of strategic alliances. The energy industry is high profile in many countries as natural resources are considered to be of national or public interest. The development of activities in this sector are highly influenced by economic, political and social factors. In the energy sector, which is different from other industries, the formation of strategic alliances has been normal practice. In order to face the challenges of an industry where cooperation is essential, the expectation is that their relevance as part of business practice will only increase. Despite their popularity, strategic alliances have a high failure rate. Consequently, there is a need to understand how and why strategic alliances succeed or fail in order to enhance the understanding of their performance. Research in the field is extensive but fragmented and there is insufficient literature on strategic alliances which takes a process theory approach. Conventional processes for the development of strategic alliances fail to integrate the wider elements which influence the alliance’s performance. Therefore, the research aim is to gain an in-depth understanding of the performance of strategic alliances in the energy sector. This is achieved through a qualitative study conducting comprehensive, semi-structured interviews with those with experience in strategic alliance development. Findings and literature show that each strategic alliance is unique - there is no a single definition. There are different types of strategic alliance and this could contribute to viewing strategic alliances as complex. In a dynamic and uncertain environment there is a need for flexibility and the capacity to adapt and accommodate change. The selection of the type of strategic alliance influences the degree of freedom to manage them. This highlights the degree of influence of the individual over the organisation and suggests considering this in the light of institutional theory, and around agency theory. Performance measurement is complex and requires a multi-perspective approach which includes softer metrics and taking stakeholders’ preferences into consideration. Partnering is complex; managing more that one organisation is difficult as they have different cultures and ways of working. The sense of equity of rewards for each partner impacts performance. Change is natural and complex, expectations, interests and objectives shift and failure could be merely a perception. Managers in alliances are constrained by the structure selected. In addition, they can face a dilemma over a conflict loyalty to the parent organisation and have some concerns about the future of their career. Furthermore, they expect endorsement from executives who influence the alliance through their decisions on structure and selection of management. The skills of managers are, therefore, important in enhancing performance within each alliance. The likelihood is that strategic alliances, and the rationale for implanting them, is going to continue to be relevant. The increasing participation of communities in these complex business decisions is also an important factor for consideration. My contribution to theory lies in developing a holistic dynamic multi-perspective process model of strategic alliances, integrating different theoretical approaches, the literature review, the findings of this research, and, finally, my personal experience in the field. The model created in this thesis utilises the explicated data themes to provide a framework in which strategic alliances can be analysed and performance understood. This framework also has practical implications which assists in the prevention of problems and poses possible solutions to make strategic alliances in the energy sector work more effectively.

This research, conceptualizes, operationalises and empirically tests a competency-based theory of business-partnering performance within an Australian business-partnering context. Drawing on theory from social psychology and marketing, the research integrates a number of theoretical approaches including resource-based theory, competency based theory, relational factors view, relational interaction theory, and competitive advantage theory to explain why some business partnerships are more successful than others are. The results use a ???process model of business-partnering??? performance to explain the interaction process through which business partners exploit the available partnering related ???operant resources??? and how these resources influence the performance of business partnerships and their ability to achieve a competitive advantage. Specifically, this research investigates a number of important internal resources, which facilitate the building, and maintaining of external businesspartner relations including ???joint alliance competence???, ???joint alliance structure???, ???interpersonal relational competence??? and ???market orientation???. This research shows that an adequate understanding of how these ???operant resources??? are deployed/accessed and co-created by the business partners to achieve a competitive advantage requires integration of ???relational interaction theory??? into ???resource-based theory??? and ???competency-based theory???. The results of this research show that those firms that pursue business partnerships as a competitive strategy can improve performance by engaging in a range of activities, which facilitate the building of ???relational capital??? of the partnership. The results provide support for conclusion that ???communication behaviour??? is a central and important mediating variable in the performance of business partnerships. Overall, the findings are consistent with the literature in finding support for the notion that ???joint alliance competence??? is a direct antecedent of businesspartnering performance. There is support for the notion that the partnership???s ability to govern and manage itself is an important determinant of ???communication behaviour??? and ???co-ordination behaviour???. The results identified ???market orientation???, ???co-ordination behaviour??? and ???relational capital??? as all having a direct influence on business-partnership profitability. Finally, given the relatively high failure rates of business partnerships this research provides greater opportunity for a discussion of the kinds of intervention strategies that could be used to minimise the risk of failure and/or to improve partnership performance. Keywords: competency, alliance, business partnership, relationship marketing, businesspartnering competency, relational factors view, resource based view, relational interaction theory, market orientation, interpersonal relational competency, alliance structure, process model.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2005. / "December 2005." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-86). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Title: Strategic Alliances: Performance Measurement in the Financial Service IndustrySubtitle: Case study: The Beneficial Life Insurance S.A. and Microfinance Institutionsin CameroonAuthors: Chi Jonathan Dze & Anouar SoldiSupervisor: David GilbertBackground: Due to the globalization, companies choose different strategies in order tosurvive. Some run towards the vertical integration in order to control the wholeproduction process, others outsource in order to reduce the productions costs, others gofor strategic alliances aiming to strengthen their market positions by bringing the lackedresources and competencies.Aims: To find a defined combination and set of factors that lead to the success of thiskind of partnerships, and to cover the lack of inexistence of one vision of measuring thesuccess of strategic alliances, especially in the service industry.Definition: We find in Varadarajan and Cunningham (1995) that strategic alliances aredefined as "the pooling of specific resources and skills by the cooperating organizationsin order to achieve common goals, as well as goals specific to the individual partners".Completion and Results: The success factors of strategic alliances in general aredifficult to be concretely measured. Still, we managed to find a model that can be usedby these companies as a guideline for the evaluation.Search terms: Strategic alliances, collaboration, success measurement, success factors,service industry