Building firm capabilities through learning: the role of the alliance learning process in alliance capability and firm‐level alliance success

Abstract In recent years, academics and managers have been very interested in understanding how firms develop alliance capability and have greater alliance success. In this paper, we show that an alliance learning process that involves articulation, codification, sharing, and internalization of alliance management know‐how is positively related to a firm's overall alliance success. Prior research has found that firms with a dedicated alliance function, which oversees and coordinates a firm's overall alliance activity, have greater alliance success. In this paper we suggest that such an alliance function is also positively related to a firm's alliance learning process, and that process partly mediates the…

• UO
  University of Pennsylvania
• WS
  Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania