Multiparty Alliances Research Articles

Government formation in presidentialism: Disentangling the combined effects of pre-electoral coalitions and legislative polarization

Abstract Recent research has shed light on the impact of pre-electoral coalitions on government formation in presidential democracies. However, the fact that pre-electoral coalitions are not automatically transformed into coalition cabinets has often gone under the radar. In this article, I argue that the importance of pre-electoral pacts for government formation depends on the degree of legislative polarization. When parties are distant from one another in the ideological spectrum, presidents face more difficulties in breaking away from the pre-electoral pact and rearranging their multiparty alliances. Conversely, when polarization is not pervasive, presidents have more leeway to build coalition cabinets different from the ones prescribed by pre-electoral coalitions. Drawing on a dataset of 13 Latin American countries, the results support my claim and suggest that the relationship between government formation and the concession of office benefits for pre-electoral coalition members is more nuanced than previously assumed.

Leftist Dynamics in Post-370 Kulgam of Kashmir: Contours of Change

Following the revocation of Article 370 and re-organisation of the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) into a Union Territory of India in August 2019, many questions arose about how democratic processes would work under the new dispensation. Within the context of the 2020 District Development Council elections, this article critically examines the surprisingly successful performance of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the CPI(M), in the district of Kulgam, a constituency well-known for its historical ties with leftist politics. Investigating the factors contributing to the party’s success, the article identifies the strategic approach by the CPI(M) to emphasise developmental issues, thereby challenging the traditional role of religion as a tool for mobilisation. Despite the strong local presence of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the left-leaning party, as part of a multi-party alliance, succeeded in gaining substantial electoral support in the seats that they contested. This study relies on primary data collected through extensive field surveys to highlight the unique electoral dynamics witnessed within this specific region, which gain added relevance in view of future electoral contests.

Managing coopetition dynamics: A longitudinal study of a multiparty alliance formation in a large utilities project

AbstractMultiparty alliances (MPAs) are increasingly used to deliver large utilities infrastructure projects on‐time, on‐budget, and to specified quality. In theory, MPAs should help buyers to coordinate suppliers, enable concurrent scheduling, and create process innovations. On the other hand, these governance structures are inherently less stable than dyadic relationships due to their additional complexity and greater opportunities for free riding. We conduct a multi‐source, longitudinal study, investigating how a buyer actively manages the dynamics between competition and cooperation during the formation of an MPA consisting of a lead organization and directional relationships between all partners. We contribute to MPA and coopetition literature by exploring cooperation and competition dynamics that are associated with the MPA structure that would largely be absent in dyads, and unpack the process by which a buyer orchestrates these dynamics by sequentially introducing new initiatives that seek to balance coopetition. MPAs have been recommended by governments and industry bodies as one solution for time and cost overruns in the utilities infrastructure sector, our study also provides guidance to buyers on the management of the alliance during the critical formation stage of the relationship lifecycle.

Sandino in Mexico: The Perils of Anti-Imperialist Alliances

Abstract: Scholars seem to share a blind faith than anti-imperialist alliances between states and/or non-state actors are, ipso facto, worthwhile and successful. Yet guerrilla leader Augusto Sandino’s collaboration with allies from beyond his native Nicaragua brought him into a web of dependence that nearly destroyed his movement. For a few years, his support from Honduras, Mexico, and points farther away seemed to herald a far-reaching and powerful resistance movement to U.S. military interventions in Latin America. Yet the very fraying of some of those alliances compelled Sandino to leave his own rebellion and relocate to Mexico for almost an entire year in 1929–1930. There, he lost more allies than he made, as he found himself caught up in strategic and political disputes between Mexican and Soviet communists and between those same Mexican communists and the ideologically hardening Mexican state. While many ordinary Mexicans fêted Sandino, erstwhile partners isolated and nearly starved him of resources. Historians of Sandino’s Mexican trip have noted its failure, but they have remained largely unconcerned with the meanings of the trip for the larger transformations occurring on the continent or the lessons it offered for transnational, multi-party alliances. Documents from Nicaragua, the United States, and Europe demonstrate that divided ideologies and structural weaknesses hobbled the many relationships at play from the start.

Firm exit from open multiparty alliances: The role of social influence, uncertainty, and interfirm imitation in collective technology development

This study examines exit dynamics in open multiparty alliances, an important form of interfirm collaboration that includes committee-based standard-setting organizations, research and technology consortia, and other types of open meta-organizations. Open multiparty alliances differ markedly from more commonly studied dyadic alliances and closed multiparty alliances due to the open nature of membership and the broad diversity of firms that collaborate towards shaping the trajectory of emerging technologies in a sector. Drawing from literature on interfirm imitation, we posit that under conditions of elevated uncertainty about the technologies under development and the ability of diverse alliance members to work together effectively, firms are subject to social influence from their industry peers and thus tend to imitate them in exiting open multiparty alliances. However, we also argue that firms that are central in the wider network of alliances have access to superior information on sector developments as well as key resources that immunize them from such social influence effects. Analyses of the exit dynamics of the nine most influential open multiparty alliances that shaped the global mobile phone sector between 2000 and 2012 support our predictions. Our findings contribute to research on interfirm collaboration in technology-intensive contexts, in particular on open collaboration between multiple partners.

Using Machine Learning to Uncover the Role of Outside-Industry Catalysts in Multi-party Alliances

Participating in a multi-party alliance with competitors is an important yet tricky decision for firms. By focusing on interactions with industry peers, the extant literature has largely ignored the role of outside industry participants. We posit that industry outsiders impact this decision by behaving as catalysts that influence the governing principles and the milieu that underlies the alliance. While some catalysts induce an environment of formal governance that reduces inter-partner trust and disincentivizes collaboration among industry rivals, others create an opportune environment for learning that supports collaboration. Given little theoretical guidance by prior literature, we employ a novel methodology that uses pattern recognition by machine learning algorithms to inductively develop and test our theory by analyzing heterogenous deal syndicates in the private equity (PE) industry.

Recent Issues in Politics, Preamble and Constitution of India: An Overview

When India is marching to celebrate seventy-five years of Independence, Indian politics has undergone several changes. India has seen one-party dominance, the Emergency period, multi-party alliances, a crisis to the Constitution and much more. Many political parties and socio-political movements have come and gone through the passage of time. Many new streams of thoughts, personalities and movements have emerged. But whatever exists now owes its existence to the legacy of the previous years. Hence, it is necessary to understand and have a general idea of politics of post-colonial India. This article seeks to draw an overview of the political history of India since its Independence up to the current period; from the Congress System after Independence, to the Emergency period under Indira Gandhi, and finally the surge and dominance of the BJP in 2014 and 2019. Focus would be laid on major issues and debates of the respective periods: Current political issues, such as the Citizenship Amendment Act, protests over the farm laws and other issues have raised the debate on the wording of the Preamble and the rights guaranteed by the Constitution of India.

Territorial Conflict, Domestic Crisis, and the Covid-19 Pandemic in the South Caucasus. Explaining Variegated EU Responses.

Territorial Conflict, Domestic Crisis, and the Covid-19 Pandemic in the South Caucasus. Explaining Variegated EU Responses.

Interpartner Legitimacy Building for a Multiparty Alliance

Drawing on supply chain collaboration, institutional theory and alliance literatures, we explore how a large buyer builds interpartner legitimacy to gain supplier commitment to a multiparty alliance (MPA). Prior literature offers very little insights into how a buyer builds moral and pragmatic interpartner legitimacy to motivate supplier participation during the formation of a MPA, and the dynamics of the interpartner legitimacy building process during this stage. Interpartner legitimacy is important to consider in this context, as suppliers may not have worked together before or are competitors. We build on rich data sets comprising meeting observations, interviews and archival data. Our study contributes to extant research by deriving a number of buyer actions to build moral and pragmatic interpartner legitimacy. We also shed light on two underexplored areas within the OSCM literature namely the formation stage of supply chain collaboration and collaboration involving multiple suppliers.

How Characteristics of Wide Bridge Partners Affect New Platform Sponsor's Alliance Formation

To successfully launch complex new technology platforms, sponsors must attract partners to develop enabling and complementary technologies. Yet, potential partners face risks particular to the interdependence of platform ecosystems and little is known about how sponsors attenuate these risks to attract partners. Research on the diffusion of innovations suggests that wide bridges (multiple indirect ties between a sponsor and potential partners) could lower the perceived risk of joining a new platform ecosystem. We theorize that wide bridge ties with firms that are technologically prominent, engaged in multiparty alliances, and have diverse alliance portfolios can attenuate ecosystem risks for potential partners. Consistent with our theory, we find that, in an effort to establish CDMA as a cellular communications platform, Qualcomm was more likely to gain the cooperation of partners to which it was indirectly tied, through firms with these characteristics.

Interpartner Legitimacy Building in the Formation Process of a Multiparty Alliance

This paper investigates how a buyer builds interpartner legitimacy during the formation of a supply chain alliance. Prior research on supply chain collaboration has focused almost exclusively on already established collaborations, neglecting the importance of the formation stage for the path-dependent nature of such long-term relationships. Alliance research found that the building of interpartner legitimacy during the formation stage is particularly important to ensure alliance success. However, we know very little about how a buyer can purposefully build interpartner legitimacy with several suppliers in the formation stage. To explore this gap, we used a longitudinal, in-depth case study to dissect the activities and processes through which a buyer forms a multiparty alliance with five suppliers to deliver substantial mechanical and electrical services with a combined value of over $1 billion for the construction of a new nuclear power station in the UK. We collected a rich dyadic data set derived from over 159 hours of meeting observations, 20 interviews and numerous company reports. Our findings demonstrate a range of actions a buyer undertakes to build interpartner legitimacy over time. We can show that these actions follow a sequence starting with the building of moral interpartner legitimacy before addressing pragmatic concerns. We find that while interpartner legitimacy building is predominantly driven by the buyer during the early phase of the formation process, suppliers drive interpartner legitimacy building during the late phase. Overall, our findings contribute to the emergent research on interpartner legitimacy building and offer insights into the underexplored area of collaboration formation.

Participação popular e mobilização política no Cone Sul dos anos 1970: os Comitês de Base da Frente Ampla uruguaia e os Comitês da Unidade Popular chilena em perspectiva comparada

Busca-se no presente artigo comparar a experiência dos Comitês de Base da Frente Ampla uruguaia e dos Comitês da Unidade Popular chilena no princípio dos anos 1970. Embora fossem coalizões eleitorais, tanto a FA quanto a UP se constituíram também como movimentos de massa, utilizando-se da estratégia da mobilização política através de Comitês que contavam com grande participação popular. Por se tratarem de alianças multipartidárias, os Comitês da Frente Ampla e da Unidade Popular eram frequentados por militantes e simpatizantes das diferentes forças, o que em determinadas ocasiões gerava atritos e polêmicas. Além disso, devido ao importante papel que desempenharam nas eleições, foi preciso debater internamente qual seria o lugar desses organismos na estrutura partidária, trazendo à tona diferentes posições no seio das esquerdas no Uruguai e no Chile. Como fontes primárias, analisou-se a imprensa e a documentação interna dos partidos, além de entrevistas com alguns de seus ex-integrantes.

Resource Asymmetry, Institutional Heterogeneity & Institutional Distance in the Multi-Party Alliance

Received wisdom suggests that multi-party alliances must contend with a tradeoff regarding heterogeneity amongst its partners. Institutional heterogeneity within an alliance increases transaction c...

Multiparty Alliances and Systemic Change: The Role of Beneficiaries and Their Capacity for Collective Action

The intensification of cross-sector collaboration phenomena has occurred in multiple fields of action. Organizations in the private, public, and social sectors are working together to tackle society’s most wicked problems. Some success has resulted in a generalized belief that cross-sector collaborations represent the new paradigm to manage complex problems. Yet, important knowledge gaps remain about how cross-sector alliances generate value for society, particularly to its beneficiaries. This paper answers the question: How cross-sector collaborations lead to systemic change? It uses a qualitative embedded case study design. I use two general cases of alliance-based interventions in the developing country Colombia. Embedded cases within each general case identify evidence of collective action capacity of the beneficiaries. Findings identify and explain alliances’ contributions to beneficiaries’ capacity building: brokering trust and creating spaces where beneficiaries develop an emergent collective action capacity. Alliances also enable beneficiaries to enact that capacity by building bridges, circulating capitals, and buffering relationships to protect people’s initiatives. Alliances and empowered collectives of beneficiaries produce systemic change using five mechanisms: brokering trust, creating spaces, building bridges, circulating capitals, and buffering relationships. Beneficiaries increased capacity for collective action is an outcome that becomes an alliance input, leading overtime to further benefits involving systemic change.

Governance of small consortia for innovation: a multiple-case study analysis

The diffusion and importance of open and collaborative innovation are widely acknowledged. Generally, policy makers launch programs fostering collaboration without awareness of the factors surrounding the collaborations. Moreover, while linkages between two organisations (dyadic relationships) have been largely explored, collaborative innovation carried out through formal multi-party alliances such as consortia is less well-known. In particular, there is little literature about the role of the administrative committee (i.e., the joint steering committee managing the consortium) and its impact on governance. A multi-case analysis of three small consortia in their initial phases reveals which forms of governance matter, how they interplay with each other and explains the role and boundaries of the administrative committee.

Understanding network formation in strategy research: Exponential random graph models

Research summary: This article uses Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) to advance strategic management research, focusing on an application to board interlock network tie formation. Networks form as the result of actor attributes as well as through the influence of existing ties. Conventional regression models require assumptions of independence between observations, and fail to incorporate endogenous structural effects of the observed network.ERGMsrepresent a methodological innovation for network formation research given their ability to model actor attributes along with endogenous structural processes. We illustrate these advantages by modeling board interlock formation among Fortune 100 firms. We also demonstrate howERGMsoffer significant opportunities to extend existing strategy research and open new pathways in multiparty alliances, microfoundations of interorganizational network formation, and multiplexity of ties among actors.Managerial summary: Social networks are increasingly important in the business world, not only between individuals but also between organizations. Firms can obtain information, resources, and status through their external network connections, and understanding how these outside ties form is an important goal of strategy research. Our paper helps advance this effort by introducing a new tool for social network analysis, Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) to the management and strategy fields. We provide an example of this method, demonstrating how social network ties form between companies when they hire common directors to their boards. Executives can benefit from this research through a greater understanding of how corporate relationships are built with allies as well as among competitors. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Special Section Guest Editorial: Photomasks for EUV Lithography

The equipment and process development model for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) masks spans international consortia, closely held multiparty alliances, individual user efforts, materials/equipment programs and ad hoc collaborations. Mask integration efforts are also spread widely from captive mask programs driving toward early and specific EUV use cases to more general-purpose efforts typical of broad application foundry or merchant business models. Even specifications for EUV masks remain a dynamically moving target as the reflective and film properties of the mask coupled with incoming illumination obliquity represent a dramatic departure from previous mask technology. Finally, due to the highly sensitive nature of mask technology as the entry point of a chip design into the fab, many teams are understandably reluctant to publish works due to competitive concerns. For these reasons, it seems particularly valuable to aggregate and highlight important work under way to address key issues in EUV mask development. We are therefore grateful to the expert authors who have provided contributions to this special edition in the following critical areas: •Mask defects and inspection often viewed as the most challenging integration module for delivering production-worthy EUV masks; •Mask blanks representing the critical starting point for high-yielding mask fabrication; •Interplay between mask quality and mask printing, which has particular importance for the new emerging patterning system; •Etching of the mask posing special challenges thanks to the unique substrate characteristics. We hope you will be encouraged by the progress and understanding demonstrated in these works for critical parts of the mask infrastructure. Despite the unique challenge of delivering a new mask technology to the industry, it is clear substantial progress is being made toward the end goal. Of course, readers should draw their own conclusions, and, toward that, we urge EUV ecosystem participants to continue adding to the discussion by publishing new works that support a vigorous EUV mask co-learning and technology dialogue.

Universities, Industry, and Government in Collaboration: A Review of the Literature on Research Centers

Research has become more complex, involving large teams of researchers, often at multiple institutions. The university research center (URC) has emerged as an important feature of this research environment. URCs represent an especially large and growing influence over university research with ties to industry and commercialization potential. The review begins with a summary of conceptual issues, including definition, description, categorization, and contextualization of URCs. In the second section, the review examines the central activity underlying the URC concept, collaboration. The third section reviews the literature on URC evaluation, including methodological recommendations and examples. The concluding section develops a systemic model of the URC and its stakeholders and recommends approaches to evaluation and directions for future research guided by the challenges facing the center approach to government-funded university research. The model includes the contributions government, industry, and university stakeholders make to URCs and the benefits they seek in return. This model considers the URC as a multiparty alliance with formal and informal aspects. The model posits that a URC can be successfully established if credible formal or informal contracts support agreements that the parties will make the expected contributions and that desired benefits will be obtained and distributed. This model is especially relevant to the challenge of sustainability for URCs. It also reflects the progression in research on URCs from the center level to increased consideration of issues affecting constituent parts of centers, such as faculty or firms, and situates each part within a system.

Firm and Group Influences on Venture Capital Firms’ Involvement in New Ventures

abstract Drawing on expectancy, equity, and collective effort theories, we argue that the level of involvement of individual firms in multifirm alliances depends on both individual firms’ self‐focused interests and factors stemming from the firms’ membership in the alliance group. We apply our theoretical arguments to the context of venture capital syndicates and test the hypotheses using data about 160 venture capital firms (VCFs) drawn from a survey instrument and a secondary data source. The results show that individual firms’ involvement in a multifirm alliance is somewhat dominated by group effects; specifically, financial stake relative to that of the group and the reputation of the other group members significantly influence the focal firm's involvement. However, focal firms’ involvement relates negatively to their own reputation. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research. Our results imply that firms in multiparty alliances pay attention to the characteristics of their alliance partnership to calibrate their own behaviour. In our specific setting, VCF involvement in syndicates depends more on relative syndicate characteristics than on the focal firm's absolute level of investment. Further, because reputation is negatively associated with involvement, entrepreneurs and potential syndicate entrants should ensure that they fully leverage VCF reputation to achieve their goals.

One more only if it is one of us. The number of partners and the stock market reaction to domestic and international alliance formation in EU telecom firms

In this paper, we analyze the interaction between two dimensions of strategic alliances whose real impact on the potential value of an alliance has not yet been highlighted: the number of partners and the direct competition among them. Building on the resource-based view, as well as on the relational view of alliances, we argue that increases in the number of partners are positively valued by the stock market when the alliance is formed by competing firms that belong to different countries. Multiparty alliances are thus positively valued when they allow a quick internationalization by affording access to resources owned by competing firms from different countries. An empirical test of stock market reaction to alliances announced by European telecom firms between 1986 and 2001 has confirmed our hypotheses.