Partner Selection in Successful International Strategic Alliances: The Role of Co-operation

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Most existing lists of partner selection factors consider task and partner criteria, each in a less than exhaustive fashion. Usually between six and eight partner-related criteria are studied at a time, although several more exist.

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Co-operation refers to situations in which partners work together in interdependent relationships to achieve mutual and/or singular outcomes, according to Inkpen, A. C. and Birkenshaw, J. , ‘International Joint Ventures and Performance: An Interorganizational Perspective’, International Business Review, Vol. 3, No. 3, 1994, pp. 201–217.

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Previous study has at times been inconsistent in separating task-and partner-related criteria. Accordingly, we relied on the core principle that task factors are equally relevant to the viability of a lone business venture. These are also more likely to be tangible and concern strategic (not organizational) attributes of partners.

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To investigate the possibility of memory decay causing bias in the data we conducted a MANOVA procedure, with the partner selection criteria being the dependent variables, to compare responses for older (4 years or more) and newer (2 years or less) alliances. Univariate F-tests and multivariate test statistics indicated no statistically significant differences between the two groups, enhancing confidence that time-dependent forgetting effects did not cause significant bias.

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