Using data from a web-survey of Danish partner firms engaged in international strategic alliances, this study explores the factors that drive alliance formation between two specific firms across national borders. The relative importance of a set of partner selection criteria is identified and related to extant theory. By means of exploratory factor analysis, a more parsimonious set of selection criteria is provided and their relationships to a number of characteristics of the sample – prior international alliance experience, administrative governance form, nationality of foreign partner and motives for alliance formation analyzed. The findings indicate that partner choice is a function of strategic motivation and varies significantly with governance mode and partner nationality.