Strategic alliances: value creation and appropriation mechanisms, configuration, and portfolio evolution

The object of this dissertation is to provide a better understanding of strategic alliances with a specific focus on value creation and value appropriation mechanisms, alliance configuration, and the evolution of alliance portfolios. In more detail, the purpose of the dissertation is threefold: (I) to summarize the existing alliance research around value creation and value appropriation processes, which are the two distinct, dynamic and interrelated processes underlying alliance partners performance. In doing so, it aims to shed lights on the theoretical underpinnings that explain the key value creation and value appropriation mechanisms that lie beneath the two processes. In addition, it aims to clarify the interdependence between the two processes, thereby advancing a contribution that conceptually tackles the need to treat value creation and value appropriation jointly (e.g., Di Minin and Faems, 2013; Lepak et al., 2007); (II) to rejoin the challenge to explore the relationship between R&D alliances and alliance partners innovation performance, by relying on the theoretical lens of the knowledge-based view of the alliances (Grant & Baden-Fuller, 2004; Vasudeva & Anand, 2011). Specifically, by adopting this theoretical lens we challenge the issue to identify the major factors that lead alliance partners to achieve high innovation performance by means of R&D alliances. Additionally, a challenge of the research is to revamp a key research stream in the alliance literature (i.e., alliance configuration) by examining the combinatory effects that inevitably occur among these factors; (III) to explore the features that epitomize alliance strategy with regards to the management of alliance portfolio. In particular, the dissertation aims to undertake an investigation of the existing body of research on alliance portfolio management in order to elucidate its main features. In addition, the dissertation is aiming to complement extant research with an investigation of these features in a case study (Ericsson) in order to provide insights on alliance strategy, from the managerial point of view (Hoffman, 2005).