Building strategic alliances has become one of the most widely used strategies in multinational enterprise or domestic firms alike. Firms can share resource, diffuse technologies rapidly, enter a new market easily, and absorb knowledge from the partner firms. However, many firms fail to achieve these competitive advantages, which often results in deteriorating performance. To answer why some firms exploit strategic alliance successfully and others fail, we will examine the ways firms establish and manage their alliance partners using well-known frameworks and cases. Furthermore, we will read some academic papers and discuss their theoretical implications in class to deepen our understanding on strategic alliances and develop own research ideas for master thesis.
This is a seminar-course. Students should read assigned papers and cases in advance and prepare for discussion. There is no written exam. Instead, students need to present their group project twice( interim presentation, final presentation) during the semester. To do so, 3-4 students make a group and choose a firm in their interests to examine the evolution of its strategic alliance and suggest strategic directions based on their evaluation. In Session 7-8, students present interim output of their analysis using frameworks and theoretical arguments covered in session 1-6. In session 16-17, students present their final projects, incorporating key concepts and frameworks into their analysis.