Organizational routines as alliance capabilities: The missing link

Strategic alliances continue to increase in popularity. However, a large number of such alliances are deemed to be unsuccessful. Interestingly, the success of strategic alliances differs considerably between firms. Thus, organizational factors seem to be responsible for the observed performance heterogeneity. Extant research on organizational level antecedents of alliance performance has mainly focused on factors such as alliance experience and alliance structures, with diverging results. Building on the literature on dynamic capabilities and learning curve effects, this study proposes that alliance capability, composed of alliance management routines, is a key mediator of the performance impact of both alliance experience and alliance structures. Based on survey data from 302 firms, the research model is tested using structural equation modeling. The results demonstrate a valid measurement of a five-dimensional model of alliance capability, manifested in the routines of inter-organizational coordination, alliance portfolio coordination, inter-organizational learning, alliance proactiveness, and alliance adaptation. In addition, there is evidence of a mediating effect of the alliance capability construct. We conclude that failure to include alliance management routines may lead to an imprecise understanding of the performance impact of alliance experience and alliance structures.