Background Strategic alliances grant access to rare know-how, inimitable resources and valuable capabilities otherwise out of reach for a single firm. Existing alliance management literature focuses on the transfer of technical know-how between alliance partners. The intra-organizational learning process with the aim to build a firm-level alliance management capability to become better at managing strategic alliances has received little attention. Especially striking is the lack of extensive research on the barriers to this process. Aim This paper aims to shed light on the existence of learning barriers to the building of a firm-level alliance management capability. Methodology A qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews. Ten individuals with varying degrees of experience in managing strategic alliances were interviewed. The ten respective sample firms were spread across seven different countries and six different industries. Findings The analysis revealed 38 learning barriers existent to the building of a firmlevel alliance management capability both confirming common organizational learning barriers and revealing context-specific learning barriers. They originate either in the firm member’s thinking and behavior, the firm’s processes and structures or in the specific learning environment. Categorized in thematical clusters, they show problem areas such as a lack of top management support. Some of the found learning barriers like the tendency of alliance managers to prioritize the relationship to the alliance partner are findings that have not received attention in theory yet. Those contributions can support a deeper understanding of what individual firms and the field of alliance management is missing in building a firm-level alliance management capability.

This thesis, which consists of three self-contained essays, examines, both theoretically and empirically, some of the economic and identity strategies and mechanisms that federated co-operatives, in particular, and strategic alliances, in general, can use to achieve co-operation and coordination. To accomplish this objective, the thesis uses a combination of industrial organization and game theory concepts from economics, insights from social and cognitive psychology, and evidence from in-depth interviews with decision-makers in the Co-operative Retailing System (CRS) - an association of 264 independent Western Canadian retail co-operatives and their wholesaler, Federated Co-operatives Ltd. (FCL).<p> Essay One combines a case study of the CRS with an examination, in a game-theoretic framework, of the co-operation and coordination problems arising among firms in alliances and the potential solutions to these problems suggested in the economics and business strategy literatures. One of the contributions of this essay is to provide examples of the mechanisms that can be used to implement these theoretical solutions in a business setting - i.e., the essay identifies practical ways for alliances to alter partner firms' payoffs, to provide private rewards, to monitor behaviour, to establish long term goals among partners, to build high group identification within the alliance, and to focus partners' expectations on the efficient outcomes. Another contribution of this essay is to identify some of the second-order co-operation problems that arise in strategic alliances - e.g., lack of incentives by alliance partners to contribute resources that are necessary to develop alliance management mechanisms - and to offer examples of the strategies that can be used to deal with these problems.<p> Essay Two draws upon social identity theory and develops an economic model of behaviour to show how the core firm in a strategic network can promote effective co-operation among network members by inducing them to identify with the network. In addition, the essay offers empirical evidence from the CRS that identity has successfully been used, together with economic mechanisms, to foster co-operation among member retails, and provides examples of the most important mechanisms that FCL, as the core firm in the CRS, has used to manage the identity of the retails. More generally, by incorporating the psychology (and sociology) of identity into an economic model of behaviour, Essay Two contributes to an emerging view that non-economic (behavioural) factors are complementary to the economic ones in the management of strategic partnerships.<p> Essay Three considers the collective action problems that arise in co-operatives when it comes to financing growth and identifies the conditions under which retained patronage can be an effective way for co-operatives to raise growth capital. The essay develops a game-theoretic model to examine the trade-off between the share of patronage refunds a co-operative wholesaler pays to member retails in cash and the share of patronage refunds it retains and invests, so as to provide retails with enough short-run benefits to encourage them to patronize their organization, while still retaining resources to invest in long-term growth. Analytical results show that when there are increasing returns in patronizing the co-operative wholesaler, retails' decisions to patronize their organization are complementary strategies and, as a result, multiple equilibria are possible. Some of these equilibria are ones with high patronage and high investment, while others are characterized by low patronage and low investment. Retails' expectations about the actions of their counterparts are critical in determining the prevailing equilibrium. The analysis also shows that the existence of the horizon problem further constraints the ability of the wholesaler to raise growth capital. Taken together, these results suggest that the retention of patronage refunds can be an effective way for the co-operative wholesaler to raise growth capital, provided it acts to focus retails' expectations on the 'good' equilibrium and to mitigate the horizon problem.<p> By examining the strategies and mechanisms that the CRS has used to achieve co-operation and coordination, and in so doing illustrating the mechanisms that firms can use to manage partner opportunism and prevent coordination failure, the thesis contributes to the alliance management literature. Firms today are increasingly forming strategic alliances with suppliers, buyers, and even competitors in order to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. However, despite their increasing popularity and value-creation potential, alliances more often fail than succeed, with alliance failure often attributed to opportunistic (non-co-operative) behaviour by one or more of the partners and to coordination failure. As a result, it is important to identify strategies and mechanisms that alliance partners can use to achieve co-operation and coordination, and thus realize the benefits from their association.<p> The thesis also contributes to the co-operative literature by shedding light on the age-old debate on whether federated co-operatives need to be centralized to ensure efficiency. In particular, the thesis shows that federated co-operatives can be efficient, provided they address the co-operation and coordination problems that arise among their members, and provides examples of the mechanisms that federated co-operatives can use to achieve co-operation and coordination. In addition, the thesis offers the first analytical treatment of how the horizon problem influences investment decisions in co-operatives.

This thesis, which consists of three self-contained essays, examines, both theoretically and empirically, some of the economic and identity strategies and mechanisms that federated co-operatives, in particular, and strategic alliances, in general, can use to achieve co-operation and coordination. To accomplish this objective, the thesis uses a combination of industrial organization and game theory concepts from economics, insights from social and cognitive psychology, and evidence from in-depth interviews with decision-makers in the Co-operative Retailing System (CRS) - an association of 264 independent Western Canadian retail co-operatives and their wholesaler, Federated Co-operatives Ltd. (FCL).<p> Essay One combines a case study of the CRS with an examination, in a game-theoretic framework, of the co-operation and coordination problems arising among firms in alliances and the potential solutions to these problems suggested in the economics and business strategy literatures. One of the contributions of this essay is to provide examples of the mechanisms that can be used to implement these theoretical solutions in a business setting - i.e., the essay identifies practical ways for alliances to alter partner firms' payoffs, to provide private rewards, to monitor behaviour, to establish long term goals among partners, to build high group identification within the alliance, and to focus partners' expectations on the efficient outcomes. Another contribution of this essay is to identify some of the second-order co-operation problems that arise in strategic alliances - e.g., lack of incentives by alliance partners to contribute resources that are necessary to develop alliance management mechanisms - and to offer examples of the strategies that can be used to deal with these problems.<p> Essay Two draws upon social identity theory and develops an economic model of behaviour to show how the core firm in a strategic network can promote effective co-operation among network members by inducing them to identify with the network. In addition, the essay offers empirical evidence from the CRS that identity has successfully been used, together with economic mechanisms, to foster co-operation among member retails, and provides examples of the most important mechanisms that FCL, as the core firm in the CRS, has used to manage the identity of the retails. More generally, by incorporating the psychology (and sociology) of identity into an economic model of behaviour, Essay Two contributes to an emerging view that non-economic (behavioural) factors are complementary to the economic ones in the management of strategic partnerships.<p> Essay Three considers the collective action problems that arise in co-operatives when it comes to financing growth and identifies the conditions under which retained patronage can be an effective way for co-operatives to raise growth capital. The essay develops a game-theoretic model to examine the trade-off between the share of patronage refunds a co-operative wholesaler pays to member retails in cash and the share of patronage refunds it retains and invests, so as to provide retails with enough short-run benefits to encourage them to patronize their organization, while still retaining resources to invest in long-term growth. Analytical results show that when there are increasing returns in patronizing the co-operative wholesaler, retails' decisions to patronize their organization are complementary strategies and, as a result, multiple equilibria are possible. Some of these equilibria are ones with high patronage and high investment, while others are characterized by low patronage and low investment. Retails' expectations about the actions of their counterparts are critical in determining the prevailing equilibrium. The analysis also shows that the existence of the horizon problem further constraints the ability of the wholesaler to raise growth capital. Taken together, these results suggest that the retention of patronage refunds can be an effective way for the co-operative wholesaler to raise growth capital, provided it acts to focus retails' expectations on the 'good' equilibrium and to mitigate the horizon problem.<p> By examining the strategies and mechanisms that the CRS has used to achieve co-operation and coordination, and in so doing illustrating the mechanisms that firms can use to manage partner opportunism and prevent coordination failure, the thesis contributes to the alliance management literature. Firms today are increasingly forming strategic alliances with suppliers, buyers, and even competitors in order to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. However, despite their increasing popularity and value-creation potential, alliances more often fail than succeed, with alliance failure often attributed to opportunistic (non-co-operative) behaviour by one or more of the partners and to coordination failure. As a result, it is important to identify strategies and mechanisms that alliance partners can use to achieve co-operation and coordination, and thus realize the benefits from their association.<p> The thesis also contributes to the co-operative literature by shedding light on the age-old debate on whether federated co-operatives need to be centralized to ensure efficiency. In particular, the thesis shows that federated co-operatives can be efficient, provided they address the co-operation and coordination problems that arise among their members, and provides examples of the mechanisms that federated co-operatives can use to achieve co-operation and coordination. In addition, the thesis offers the first analytical treatment of how the horizon problem influences investment decisions in co-operatives.

Integrating research from the strategic management and the supply chain management (SCM) literatures promises a fertile area of research that can enrich both areas. In this work, an attempt was made to answer the recent calls for incorporating perspectives from each field into the other. These calls were further encouraged by the new competitive landscape characterized by hypercompetition and network versus network competition. Thus, the field of Strategy, with its emphasis on gaining and sustaining competitive advantage, and SCM, with its emphasis on managing processes spanning organizational boundaries, stand to benefit greatly by this integration. The introduction chapter briefly describes what this research tried to achieve. In the supply chain management literature review chapter, the importance of managing supply chains in this era of network versus network competition is shown and the strategic demand network management (SDNM) concept is presented as an evolution of supply chain management and as a more suitable name reflecting the processes involved. In the third chapter, a selected list of supply chain management practices is presented and explained. The fourth, fifth and sixth chapters will endeavor to carry on three developments. These developments seek to integrate strategy and SCM research in three ways. In the first development, the dynamic capability perspective from the strategy field and the SDNM capability are integrated in order to suggest how demand network management enables dynamic capabilities. On the other hand, dynamic capabilities perspective were used to guide the SDNM practices. In the second development, alliance management capability from the strategy field was integrated with SDNM capability and SDNM practices to show how concepts from both areas can enrich the other. And finally the third development builds on the first two developments to explore how SDNM capability can facilitate strategic entrepreneurship (SE) and SE based boundary decisions.

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Submitted by JOSIANE SANTOS DE OLIVEIRA (josianeso) on 2017-11-13T12:46:24Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Wagner Andreo Alledo Filho_.pdf: 2539698 bytes, checksum: 71e0aa3e1f3e430358906a6ea7551a10 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-11-13T12:46:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Wagner Andreo Alledo Filho_.pdf: 2539698 bytes, checksum: 71e0aa3e1f3e430358906a6ea7551a10 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-06-29 / Nenhuma / Empresas de diversos setores têm desenvolvido alianças estratégicas como forma de buscar um diferencial competitivo. Estudos recentes têm explorado a gestão de alianças e o seu desempenho, e um dos antecedentes encontrados é a importância da capacidade de gestão de alianças, que se refere à capacidade que as empresas têm de capturar, compartilhar e armazenar conhecimentos sobre gestão de alianças e aplicá-los em alianças atuais ou futuras. A literatura apresenta 3 elementos que representam a capacidade de gestão de alianças dentro das empresas, que são estruturas, processos e ferramentas dedicadas a alianças, sendo que esses elementos podem ser encontrados no nível da díade ou no âmbito interno das empresas. O entendimento de como essa capacidade se desenvolve é uma lacuna na pesquisa sobre o tema. Esse trabalho investiga como se desenvolve essa capacidade no âmbito interno da firma, através de um estudo de caso de uma empresa que alcançou essa capacidade. Por meio do uso da abordagem de pesquisa histórico-longitudinal em administração é apresentado detalhadamente como se desenvolveu essa capacidade interna e quais foram as estruturas, processos e ferramentas que a formaram. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevistas, análise de documentos e observação dessas dimensões na sua forma atual. Os principais resultados encontrados demonstram o processo de desenvolvimento da capacidade de gestão de alianças dentro da empresa através da importância de (1) desenvolver uma boa reputação que favoreça a criação de alianças, (2) criar estruturas independentes para gerir as alianças, (3) associar-se aos líderes para buscar o crescimento através de alianças e (4) incentivar trocas internas de experiência entre as alianças. Além disso, destaca-se (5) a comprovação de que os elementos que compõe a capacidade de gestão de alianças apresentados na literatura de fato compõe essa capacidade, pois foram encontrados na empresa analisada. No âmbito gerencial, embora não prescritivo, o processo de desenvolvimento da capacidade de gestão de alianças na empresa estudada pode servir de referência para empresas que buscam alcançar essa capacidade. / Companies from diverse sectors have developed strategic alliances to seek a competitive advantage. Recent studies have explored alliance management and performance, and one of the antecedents founded is the importance of alliance management capability, which refers to the ability of corporations to capture, share, and store alliances knowledge and apply them into current or future alliances. The literature presents three elements that represent the capacity of management of alliances within the companies, which are structures, processes and tools dedicated to alliances, and these elements can be found at the level of the dyad or at the internal level of the companies. Understanding how this capacity develops is a gap in research on the subject. This work investigates how this capacity is developed within the firm, through a case study of a company that has reached this capacity. Through the use of the research strategy with historical-longitudinal approach, it is presented in detail how this internal capacity was developed and what were the structures, processes and tools that formed it. The data were collected through interviews, analysis of documents on the development of structures, processes and structures of the company and observation of these dimensions in their current form. The main results demonstrate the process of developing alliances management capacity within the company through the importance of (1) developing a good reputation that favors the creation of alliances, (2) creating independent structures to manage alliances, (3) associate with leaders to pursue growth through alliances, and (4) encourage internal exchanges of experience among alliances. In addition, we highlight (5) the evidence that the elements that make up the alliance management capacity presented in the literature compose this capacity, since they were found in the company analyzed. At the managerial level, although not prescriptive, the process of developing alliances management capacity in the company studied can serve as a reference for companies that seek to achieve this capacity.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:25:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Simone Basile Alves.pdf: 1982195 bytes, checksum: 167f0712dcb66c27f479920e3d831afc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-09 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / The challenge of competing in highly dynamic and complex environments, which involve high technology and knowledge and resources distributed among different agents, encourages organizations to develop strategic alliances contract. Alliances are a way to expand the boundaries and a way to transfer knowledge and to access complementary assets. However, a large number of alliances fail to meet expectations of the partners involved. In this work, there is the question of how the ability to manage strategic alliances contract relates to the performance of alliances. The relevance of the research is to conduct a qualitative study to complement previous theoretical and quantitative studies and seeking to expand the understanding of the relationships between the processes of relational capacity and performance of alliances. To study this question we chose to map the alliances in the sector of pharmaceutical biotechnology, in human health segment. Noteworthy is the fact that the Brazilian government has chosen this sector as a central tenet of its industrial policy through several incentive programs. This sector is highly complex and dependent on multidisciplinary knowledge, and is characterized by the distribution of knowledge and resources needed by the agents, with a large number of alliances involving activities such as research, development, innovation, clinical testing, marketing, which are crucial to the good performance and competitive advantage. For the study we opted for the methodology of multiple case studies. We studied three biotechnology organizations, and one alliance from each organization. We interviewed managers of rank 1 and 2 (directors and managing partners), one manager for each alliance. Data were analyzed through categorical thematic analysis, with categories defined a priori from the literature on the subject. The main categories and cases have been crossed. It was concluded that the business model through alliances is very present in biotechnology sector, and the ability to manage alliances have a value for organizations, as it contributes to the performance of alliances. Another highlight is the importance of the relationship of cooperation and trust between partners, for the good performance of alliances. / O desafio da competição em ambientes altamente dinâmicos, complexos e que envolvem alta tecnologia, com conhecimento e recursos distribuídos entre diferentes agentes, estimula as organizações a desenvolverem alianças estratégicas contratuais. As alianças são uma forma de expandir as fronteiras e um meio de transferência do conhecimento e de acesso a ativos complementares. No entanto, um grande número de alianças não atendem às expectativas dos parceiros envolvidos. Neste trabalho, coloca-se a questão de como a capacidade de gestão de alianças estratégicas contratuais se relaciona com o desempenho das alianças. A relevância da pesquisa está em realizar um estudo qualitativo que complemente estudos teóricos e quantitativos anteriores, buscando ampliar o entendimento das relações processuais entre a capacidade relacional e o desempenho das alianças. Para estudar esta questão optou-se por mapear as alianças no setor de biotecnologia farmacêutica, segmento de saúde humana. Destaca-se o fato do governo brasileiro ter escolhido esse setor como um dos eixos centrais de sua política industrial por meio de diversos programas de incentivo. Esse setor é altamente complexo e dependente de conhecimento multidisciplinar, e se caracteriza pela distribuição dos conhecimentos e recursos necessários pelos agentes, apresentando um grande número de alianças envolvendo atividades como pesquisa, desenvolvimento, inovação, testes clínicos, comercialização, as quais são cruciais para o bom desempenho e para a vantagem competitiva. Para a realização do estudo optou-se pela metodologia de estudos de casos múltiplos. Foram estudadas alianças de três organizações de biotecnologia, sendo uma aliança de cada organização. Foram entrevistados gestores do nível hierárquico 1 e 2 (diretoria e sócios-diretores), sendo um gestor para cada aliança. Os dados foram analisados via análise temática categorial com categorias definidas a priori a partir da literatura sobre o tema. As principais categorias e casos foram cruzados. Concluiu-se que o modelo de negócios via alianças está muito presente no setor de biotecnologia, e que a capacidade de gestão de alianças tem um valor para as organizações, na medida em que contribui para o bom desempenho das alianças. Outro ponto de destaque é a importância da relação de cooperação e de confiança entre os parceiros, para o bom desempenho das alianças.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:26:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tania Regina Gofredo.pdf: 853318 bytes, checksum: 3d3cb0c94536788bbac7e31bbf3fe3d8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-19 / With this work, we sought to deepen the relation between synchronization mechanisms and the interdependence of contractual strategic alliances of the Brazilian pharmaceutical sector. The analyzed companies are reputable manufacturers of medicines for human health, which represent 25% of total sales in the Brazilian market. We sought to create yet no definite propositions, based on the constructs of interdependence and synchronization mechanisms, together with information drawn from empirical research. The interest in focusing on the pharmaceutical industry has to understand that this is a sector characterized by complexity and dynamism in its competitive environment and therefore have incentives to seek knowledge beyond their organizational boundaries, becoming an industry highly susceptible to the establishment contractual strategic alliances for a number of organizational activities, such as research and development, manufacturing, marketing, distribution and supply. For this study, qualitative research was conducted exploratory, given that the most important for the realization of the study unit is working with people and all the worries involved. Primary data through systematic interviews with managers responsible for alliances sector companies, listed in the Electronic Bulário ANVISA were collected. Data were analyzed using thematic content analysis, with categories defined a priori, and crossing cases. The research work has responded to the problem posed by the analysis of several propositions. It was concluded that, from the identification of interdependence created between partners in a strategic alliance contract, there is indeed the search for mechanisms of synchronization of activities that best fit this alliance, and that alternate according to the degree of interdependence is characterized by the type of alliance between the partners. / Com este trabalho, buscou-se aprofundar qual a relação entre mecanismos de sincronização e a interdependência em alianças estratégicas contratuais do setor farmacêutico brasileiro. As empresas analisadas são conceituadas fabricantes de medicamentos para a saúde humana, que correspondem a 25% do faturamento total do mercado brasileiro. Buscou-se ainda criar proposições não definitivas, baseadas nos constructos de interdependência e mecanismos de sincronização, conjuntamente às informações extraídas da pesquisa empírica. O interesse em focar na indústria farmacêutica se deu por entender que se trata de um setor caracterizado pela complexidade e dinamismo em seu ambiente de competição e, portanto, tem incentivos para buscar conhecimento além das suas fronteiras organizacionais. Desse modo, constitui-se em um setor altamente suscetível ao estabelecimento de alianças estratégicas contratuais para uma série de atividades organizacionais, como pesquisa e desenvolvimento, manufatura, comercialização, distribuição e fornecimento. Para este estudo, foi realizada pesquisa qualitativa com caráter exploratório, tendo em vista que a fonte mais importante para a concretização do estudo é o trabalho com as pessoas e todas as preocupações envolvidas. Foram coletados dados primários via entrevistas sistemáticas, com gestores responsáveis por alianças em empresas do setor, listadas no Bulário Eletrônico da ANVISA. Os dados foram analisados por meio de análise de conteúdo temática categorial, com categorias definidas a priori, e cruzamento dos casos. O problema de pesquisa proposto foi respondido por meio da análise de várias proposições. Concluiu-se que, a partir da identificação da relação de interdependência criada entre os parceiros envolvidos em uma aliança estratégica contratual, há de fato a busca pelos mecanismos de sincronização das atividades que mais se ajustem a essa aliança, e que se alternam conforme o grau de interdependência caracterizado pelo tipo de aliança estabelecida entre os parceiros.