Strategic Alliance Formation from the Institutional Theory Perspective

Abstract

The strategic alliance is an effective model to improve the competitive capability of firms and business, especially in the developing economies. However, the institutional environment of developing economies hinders the formation of such strategic alliances. The current research aims to investigate the institutional parameters in the formation of strategic alliances from the regulatory, normative and cognitive attributes. Data were gathered from a sample of 270 chief executive officers, deputy managers and consultants of industrial equipment and manufacturing contractors through a simple randomized sampling method, and the role of legal procedures, educational system and trust in the formation of strategic alliance in industrial projects were evaluated using regression analysis. The findings provided a macro-image of the effect of the institutional environment on alliance formation and showed that the legal procedures and the educational system have a significant relationship with alliance formation of the contractors. In addition, the more the technological uncertainty of projects, trust will have a more effective role in the alliance formation.

Keywords

• educational system
• Institutional Theory
• Legal Procedures
• Strategic Alliance
• Trust