| The problem. United States aerospace/electronic-oriented companies are in a shrinking market. Strategic alliance is a business strategy that can assist defense-oriented companies transition into non-defense business areas. The purpose of this study was to evaluate strategic alliance factors that relate to strategic alliance success.; Method. A descriptive correlational study was conducted to determine the relationship between strategic alliance situational and financial investment factors with business success; and situational factors with core competency investment.; Results. This research examined 275 relationships between strategic alliance factors with core competency investment and business success (i.e., performance). There were 21 correlations with significance of 0.05 or better. Eight of the research hypotheses were partially supported and three were not supported. The research hypothesized that high level of business integrity between the partners and similarity between the partners in business environments, cultures, demographics, environmental change capability, and levels of investment in the partnership would contribute to core competency investment and business success. It was expected that the research would support the literature which states that the factors of mutual attitudes, mutual goals, mutual respect, trust, commitment, ethics, business integrity, flexibility, and communication between the partners would contribute to core competency investment and business success. However, the research outcome was unexpected and did not support the literature. The research confirmed a relationship between core competency investment and business success. The research confirmed the greater the partners' employee ratio, the greater the core competency investment. Testing proved that as trust increased between the partners, the level of core competency investment decreased. This result was unexpected. Respondents indicated that trust, mutual respect, commitment, common goals, and communication were important to alliance success. However, respondents reported that these factors were limited in their alliances, even though the alliances had core competency investment and were successful. Aerospace executives indicated because of collaboration vs. competition relationships in their industry there is a lack of trust, mutual respect, and communication. |
