Four essays on antecedents and consequences of governance in strategic alliances

Schweitzer, Jochen

Four essays on antecedents and consequences of governance in strategic alliances

Schweitzer, Jochen

Permalink

Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2008

Closed Access

	Filename	Description	Size
	01Front.pdf	contents and abstract	1.02 MB	Adobe PDF	View/Open
	02Whole.pdf	thesis	38.92 MB	Adobe PDF	View/Open

Copyright Clearance Process

Recently Added
In Progress
Closed Access

This item is closed access and not available.

Full metadata record

Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Schweitzer, Jochen
dc.date.accessioned	2016-02-15T04:00:37Z
dc.date.available	2016-02-15T04:00:37Z
dc.date.issued	2008
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/41584
dc.description	University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Business.	en_AU
dc.description	NO FULL TEXT AVAILABLE. Access is restricted indefinitely. The hardcopy may be available for consultation at the UTS Library.
dc.description.abstract	NO FULL TEXT AVAILABLE. Access is restricted indefinitely. ----- As long as almost every second strategic alliance between organizations fails to achieve its anticipated performance outcomes, there is a vital need to improve our understanding of how to best manage alliances. I address this call in my thesis by forwarding two independent theoretic perspectives on the governance of strategic alliances. One perspective is on antecedents of alliance governance-it explains how different forms of alliance governance are established as a function of the partners' goal incongruence, performance ambiguity, and the complexity of their contractual agreements. The associated conceptual model of alliance contracting and governance expands .on the organizational control perspective :and recent theoretical contributions on contractual complexity in alliances. The second perspective I put forth is on the consequences of alliance governance-it explains how governance and leadership practices in alliances co-occur and jointly influence the development of dynamic and operational capabilities, which are essential for the alliance to perform and create .economic rents. My model of governance, leadership, and capability development in alliances is embedded in stewardship theory, full-range leadership theory, and the dynamic capability perspective. In a study of 369 alliances I test the two theoretical models. The empirical result supports the first conceptual model and accentuates the central role of contractual complexity as an antecedent to alliance governance. Bureaucracy, market, clan, and adhocracy governance in alliances can be explained as a function of contractual complexity, goal incongruence, and performance ambiguity among alliance partners. I also investigate antecedents of contractual complexity. The theoretical model, the survey results, and earlier research are consistent in regards to the impact of asset specificity, time boundedness, and strategic importance on goal incongruence, performance ambiguity, and contractual complexity. In regards to the influence of prior ties among alliance partners and the effects of partner search costs on contractual complexity, I find that the empirical results are not consistent with previous research. The findings regarding the model of governance, leadership, and capability development in alliances imply that the positive relationship between transformational leadership and the development of dynamic capabilities is stronger with stewardship governance and weaker with agency governance. In addition, transactional leadership behavior is significantly associated with both dynamic and operational capability development in the case of stewardship governance. Overall, this research confirms that governance is a fundamental aspect of alliance management that alliance partners can influence and improve once they have a good understanding of the factors that underlie and influence their decisions about governance mechanisms. In view of that, this thesis stresses in particular the role of factors that establish the alignment of alliance partners' objectives, the transparency of their mutual contribution, and the complexity of their contractual agreements. Furthermore, this study posits that governance enables leadership and capability development in alliances. I find that a comprehensive effect of different leadership behaviors on the dynamic and operational capability base in alliances can be achieved by employing stewardship type governance. The improvement of alliance performance as a result of dynamic capabilities is, thus, greatly influenced by the interplay of alliance governance with the transformational and transactional leadership behaviors of the alliance managers.	en_AU
dc.format	Thesis (PhD)
dc.language.iso	en_AU	en_AU
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
dc.title	Four essays on antecedents and consequences of governance in strategic alliances	en_AU
dc.type	Thesis	en_AU
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access

Abstract:

NO FULL TEXT AVAILABLE. Access is restricted indefinitely. ----- As long as almost every second strategic alliance between organizations fails to achieve its anticipated performance outcomes, there is a vital need to improve our understanding of how to best manage alliances. I address this call in my thesis by forwarding two independent theoretic perspectives on the governance of strategic alliances. One perspective is on antecedents of alliance governance-it explains how different forms of alliance governance are established as a function of the partners' goal incongruence, performance ambiguity, and the complexity of their contractual agreements. The associated conceptual model of alliance contracting and governance expands .on the organizational control perspective :and recent theoretical contributions on contractual complexity in alliances. The second perspective I put forth is on the consequences of alliance governance-it explains how governance and leadership practices in alliances co-occur and jointly influence the development of dynamic and operational capabilities, which are essential for the alliance to perform and create .economic rents. My model of governance, leadership, and capability development in alliances is embedded in stewardship theory, full-range leadership theory, and the dynamic capability perspective. In a study of 369 alliances I test the two theoretical models. The empirical result supports the first conceptual model and accentuates the central role of contractual complexity as an antecedent to alliance governance. Bureaucracy, market, clan, and adhocracy governance in alliances can be explained as a function of contractual complexity, goal incongruence, and performance ambiguity among alliance partners. I also investigate antecedents of contractual complexity. The theoretical model, the survey results, and earlier research are consistent in regards to the impact of asset specificity, time boundedness, and strategic importance on goal incongruence, performance ambiguity, and contractual complexity. In regards to the influence of prior ties among alliance partners and the effects of partner search costs on contractual complexity, I find that the empirical results are not consistent with previous research. The findings regarding the model of governance, leadership, and capability development in alliances imply that the positive relationship between transformational leadership and the development of dynamic capabilities is stronger with stewardship governance and weaker with agency governance. In addition, transactional leadership behavior is significantly associated with both dynamic and operational capability development in the case of stewardship governance. Overall, this research confirms that governance is a fundamental aspect of alliance management that alliance partners can influence and improve once they have a good understanding of the factors that underlie and influence their decisions about governance mechanisms. In view of that, this thesis stresses in particular the role of factors that establish the alignment of alliance partners' objectives, the transparency of their mutual contribution, and the complexity of their contractual agreements. Furthermore, this study posits that governance enables leadership and capability development in alliances. I find that a comprehensive effect of different leadership behaviors on the dynamic and operational capability base in alliances can be achieved by employing stewardship type governance. The improvement of alliance performance as a result of dynamic capabilities is, thus, greatly influenced by the interplay of alliance governance with the transformational and transactional leadership behaviors of the alliance managers.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/41584