The Influence of Partner Characteristics and Relationship Capital on the Performance of International Strategic Alliances

Abstract

The number of strategic alliances has increased tremendously over the past decade. How an alliance performs is very important, because poor performance will result in the termination of cooperation. This article examines whether partner characteristics (i.e., interdependence and cultural compatibility) can indirectly influence the performance (i.e., goal accomplishment and relational harmony) of international strategic alliances through relationship capital (i.e., mutual trust, information sharing, and reciprocal commitment). The target of this research is the tourist trade industry. On the basis of capital accounts, we selected the top 1,000 tourist agencies in Taiwan to survey. We used a LISREL model to investigate the causal relationships among the variables. The empirical results showed that partner characteristics indirectly affect alliance performance through relationship capital. Analysis of direct and indirect effects showed that cultural compatibility plays a relatively more important role compared to partner characteristics. The findings also indicated that mutual trust and information sharing affect alliance performance through the variable of reciprocal commitment.