Performance Of Strategic Alliances

The network economy is a new mode of economy accompanied with the information revolution. With the rapid development of network economy,the technology and information are proliferated faster and faster. Meanwhile,the trend of people's consumption value towards individualization and diversification is making the life cycle of industry and commodity shorter,the ratio of R&D in the product higer, the competition more internationalized and more fierce,the management enviorment of the companies change fundamentally,the competition with individual omnipotence encounter serious chanllenge.Since the 1980s, Western enterprises have made creative adjustments to their competing strategies--from direct competition to cooperative competition by strategic alliances. Through strategic alliances,they can reduce the competition risk,decrease the production cost,avoid the barrier to enter new market,gain new technology,make industrial standard etc.In general, it can solve the problems many enterprises cannot solve only with the individual capacities,consequently increase the competency of all the parties involved.Many MNCs' alliances are based on different motivations. Dominated by different motivations, the MNCs accordingly choose to adopt diverse forms of strategic alliances. The compatible goal is the base for cooperation between partners.But the differnce of individual goal and benefit between partners casue the direct or indirect competition between them exist permanently. Although strategic alliances may fall into two types: profit-pursuing type and capability-strengthening type according to different motivation and corresponding characteristics, the results to the partners are different. Meanwhile,the instability in such an organization form of strategic alliance also brings about much specific risk to MNCs in their process of strategic alliances. Serious study is really needed with respect to themes of how to assess the performance of MNCs' strategic alliances as well as what kind of factors are affecting it and what are the relationships between them.From different aspects including definition, type, characteristics, motivation and risks, etc., many scholars at home and abroad have successively made both analysis and research of strategic alliance. However, comparatively, they seldom made systematic analysis of the relationship between the performance of strategic alliance and the factors affecting it. It is the same with their studies on the qualitative relation between the factors affecting the performance of strategic alliances and the performance itself. However, this is just the most realistic and significant theme on the study of strategic alliances.