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Alliance or acquisition? a dyadic perspective on interfirm resource combinations
Author(s) -
Wang Lihua,
Zajac Edward J.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
strategic management journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 11.035
H-Index - 286
eISSN - 1097-0266
pISSN - 0143-2095
DOI - 10.1002/smj.638
Subject(s) - alliance , complementarity (molecular biology) , resource acquisition is initialization , perspective (graphical) , resource (disambiguation) , business , industrial organization , corporate governance , affect (linguistics) , resource based view , similarity (geometry) , resource dependence theory , sample (material) , marketing , knowledge management , microeconomics , economics , resource allocation , competitive advantage , computer science , management , psychology , political science , artificial intelligence , law , image (mathematics) , computer network , genetics , biology , communication , finance , chemistry , chromatography
For firms seeking to strategically combine their resources with those of other firms, two popular alternative governance structures emerge: alliance or acquisition. In this paper, we propose a dyadic perspective to examine how and why configurations of two firms' resources and capabilities affect the costs and benefits associated with each governance structure. More specifically, we posit that factors such as (1) the resource similarity and complementarity between a pair of firms, (2) the combined relational capabilities of a pair of firms, and (3) the partner‐specific knowledge between a pair of firms will affect the likelihood of observing that pair of firms forming an alliance vs. engaging in an acquisition. We test and find support for our hypotheses using extensive longitudinal data from a sample of the largest firms in the United States from 1991 to 2000. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.