New Article Published in the Journal of Management Studies 45(3): 530-560
Disentangling alliance management processes: Decision making, politicality, and alliance performance
Jorge Walter*, Christoph Lechner**, & Franz W. Kellermanns***
* Portland State University, ** University of St. Gallen, *** Mississippi State University
Using a sample of 106 organizations engaged in strategic alliances, we develop and test a framework of alliance-related organizational decision-making processes and their impact on alliance performance. With regard to direct effects, our results show a negative impact of decision-making recursiveness and no significant relationship for openness and procedural rationality. Acknowledging the importance of the organization’s micropolitical context in which these decision processes are embedded, we also test the moderating influence of politicality. Our findings provide support for our hypotheses that in a context of low politicality, the decision-making characteristics of openness and procedural rationality have a positive influence, whereas recursiveness negatively affects alliance performance. In a context of high politicality, however, openness and procedural rationality exert a negative influence, and the negative impact of recursiveness is aggravated. We suggest that alliance-related decision making cannot be adequately understood without explicitly considering the micropolitical context in organizations.
Keywords: Strategic alliances, alliance performance, alliance-related decision-making processes, politicality.
For a copy of the article, please see here or contact me directly.
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