Coordinating Inter-organizational Learning Throughout Alliance Evolution

Abstract

AbstractBased on three case studies we investigate the issue of inter-organizational learning coordination throughout the evolution of the strategic alliance. We imply that alliances should be designed to learn, and alliance partners’ choices about mechanisms of coordination should be made depending on the stage of alliance evolution. We operationalize alliance evolution through two dimensions:—alliance age and alliance maturity. Alliance age is simply the time from birth of the alliance; alliance maturity is the degree of past involvement and experience of the two alliance partners. The study suggests that alliance age is positively associated with the application of formal mechanisms of coordination, while alliance maturity is positively associated with the application of informal mechanisms of coordination. Application of both formal and informal mechanisms of coordination is important for learning and knowledge transfer in strategic alliances; thus, their importance is moderated by alliance maturity. Alliance maturity, unlike alliance age, can decrease. Our results contribute to the knowledge on strategic alliance dynamics, and to the organizational design theory.KeywordsAlliance evolutionAlliance maturityCoordination mechanismsInterorganizational learning