Competitive advantages of a strategic alliance as the basis for the competitiveness of an international company

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES OF A STRATEGIC ALLIANCE AS THE BASIS FOR THE COMPETITIVENESS OF AN INTERNATIONAL COMPANY

Аннотация

Сибирский Государственный Университет науки и технологий им.ак. М.Ф. Решетнева

КОНКУРЕНТНЫЕ ПРЕИМУЩЕСТВА СТРАТЕГИЧЕСКОГО АЛЬЯНСА КАК ОСНОВА КОНКУРЕНТОСПОСОБНОСТИ КОМПАНИИ

Баранова П.Ф., Студент магистратуры Кси Джийан Студент магистратуры Научный руководитель: Сумина Е.В., Доцент кафедры «Международного бизнеса» г. Красноярск

В статье раскрывается сущность стратегического альянса как формы долгосрочного сотрудничества и взаимодействия компаний с целью обеспечения конкурентоспособности. Инновационный стратегический альянс позволяет добиться и поддерживать конкурентоспособность международных компаний. Обоснована роль стратегического альянса в современных условиях.

Ключевые слова: стратегический альянс, конкурентоспособность, международная компания, сотрудничество.

Annotation

The article reveals the essence of the strategic alliance as a form of long-term cooperation and cooperation of companies in order to ensure competitiveness. Innovative strategic Alliance allows to achieve and maintain the competitiveness of international companies. The role of strategic alliance in modern conditions is proved.

Keywords: strategic alliance; competitiveness; international company; cooperation.

The main text

strategic alliance competitiveness international

In the era of globalization Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. This process has effects on the environment, on culture, on political systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical well-beingin societies around the world., strategic alliances are becoming more and more popular as a tool for meeting customer demands and a significant form of growth. However, strategic alliances cannot formulate a strategy of innovation that would last forever. Therefore, it must be redefined and altered constantly along with changes of business environment. Innovative performance of a strategic alliance plays crucial role in accomplishing business efficiency and better market position, and helps international companies to find the ways of improving the competitiveness and realize sustainable competitive advantage In business, competitive advantage is the condition that allows an organization to outperform its competitors. It may include access to natural resources, such as high-grade ores or a low-cost power source, highly skilled labor, geographic location, high entry barriers, and access to new technology..

To keep competitive and reduce risks, a company may choose to engage in an international strategic alliance with other companies. By this way, inexperience with local business practices and cultural differences can be supplemented by a more knowledgeable party. Experience with collaborating between companies can not only help the companies to create contracts and share resource, but also provides companies with the ability to maximize the value in risks (Kumar, 2010). Strategic alliances have the ability to improve the overall competitiveness and strength of all parties.

The Definition and Formation of Strategic Alliances

Strategic alliances are cooperative arrangements that are formed between two or more companies in order to improve the competitive position and performance of the companies by sharing resources (Jarillo, 1988). Varadarajan and Cunningham (1995) define strategic alliances as the pooling of specific resources and skills by the cooperating organizations in order to achieve common goals as well as specific aims to the individual partners. Parkhe (1993) defines strategic alliances as enduring international companies cooperative arrangements involving flows and linkages that use resources and or governance structures from autonomous organizations.

Strategic alliance is cooperative group between two or more parties to achieve the same objectives while organizations still remain independent. Strategic alliances offer an opportunity for companies to collaborate in doing business.

The booms and busts in alliance formation have occurred in other industries, but there is no detail data to show this conclusively. In the early 1990, there were waves of strategic alliance formation in the telecommunications airline, health-care, and commercial real estate industries. And the late 1970s and early 1980s have witnessed alliance waves in many industries, such as in the automobile, aircraft and chemicals industries. Historical data on the foreign operations of large U.S. manufacturing firms indicates an increase of joint ventures in the late 1950s, and later, it had a sharp decline in the 1960s (Gomes-Casseres B, 1988)

In modern conditions, organizations operate in a global environment that is diverse and unstable. These characteristics are a collaboration fundamental base of maintaining competitive advantage (Gummesson, 1995). There are three stages to the formation of strategic alliance, and it can be summarized as follows. Kanter (1994) uses "marriage" “Marriage” is a metaphor. It means that two companies reach an agreement and cooperate with each other for their respective goals. to describe the alliance between companies. She believes that successful alliance formation usually goes through three stages: firstly, selection and courtship, two companies meet and attract each other; Then, contract signing (like getting engaged), they draw up plans and reach a cooperation agreement; Finally, starting daily affairs (like housekeeping), the newly formed alliance members, like newlyweds dealing with housework, need to agree on how the alliance should operate.

The Development Trend of Strategic Alliance - Knowledge Alliance

The strategic alliance is changing with the development of globalization and modern economy. Product Alliance is changing into "Knowledge Alliance". Early multinational strategic alliances, often referred to as product alliances, were built around products to reduce investment costs and risks or to minimize the threat of competitors. Product alliances are relatively simple. Getting a kind of products or selling existing products is an important goal pursued by all parties in the alliance. With the rapid development of science and technology, the comprehensiveness and complexity of modern technology make the research and development of international corporations more and more difficult. Therefore, the strategic alliance of international corporations is more represented as a knowledge alliance characterized by technology development and sharing of research results. The strategic ability to maintain technological innovation and technological leadership has become the primary goal pursued by all parties in the alliance.

Knowledge alliance refers to the alliance established between enterprises and other organizations in order to create new knowledge and transfer knowledge. Its central goal is to learn and create knowledge to improve core competitiveness. It works more closely than the product alliance, with a wider range of participants and greater strategic potential. “The knowledge-based alliance network is an aspect that traditional international production measures do not have. It may become a key factor in the dominance of certain industrial markets.”

Improving the Competitiveness of an International Company by the Formation of a Strategic Alliance

Strategic alliances value-creating potential makes them an important source of competitive advantage (Das and Teng, 2001). The companies can effectively deal with environmental instability and liability, positioning in competitive markets and reducing transaction costs through strategic alliances increasing the probability of improving the competitiveness (Oliva, 2001). Beyond this, alliances can create more value in markets because of the increasing symmetry of efficient information flows between companies, suppliers and customers.

Through the establishment of strategic alliances, international companies can effectively organize and utilize operational resources within the alliance, further saving investment in certain fixed assets Fixed assets, also known as tangible assets or property, plant and equipment, is a term used

in accounting for assets and property that cannot easily be converted into cash. and various production costs, reducing operation costs.

The strategic alliance enhances the professional production and division of labor of the partners, and integrates their respectively comparative advantages in various aspects, such as professional technical expertise, components and parts production, quality control, final assembly, marketing and after-sales service, so that the final product cost is greatly reduced, and the market competitiveness of the alliance enterprises is greatly improved.

By establishing strategic alliances, international companies jointly pay for technology development costs, undertake development risks, and finally share technological development achievements. Strategic alliance is also a shortcut for international companies to acquire key technologies. By learning mutual strengths, they can complement each other technological advantages, improve the technical content and added value of products, and enhance their core competitiveness.

Conclusion

This article mainly introduces about the essence of Strategic alliances. It becomes more and more significant very important form of cooperation between international companies. This form of cooperation has objectives like diversification of risks, sharing resources, the development of new knowledge and the use of current technologies, and increase of market share, along with maximum exploitation of economies of scale and improving competitiveness.

Strategic alliances might use more than one innovation strategy, because business environment is dynamic and alliances are continuously changing. Therefore, the innovative performance of strategic alliances enables the international companies to take better market position compared to their rivals.

Refereneces

1. Barney, J. Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. / Jay Barney. Journal of Management, 1991. 99-120 p.

2. Das, K., & Teng, B. A risk perception model of alliance structuring. / K. Das, B.Teng. Journal of International Management, 2001. 1-29 p.

3. Gomes-Casseres, Benjamin. The Alliance Revolution: The New Shape of Business Rivalry. / Benjamin Gomes-Casseres. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996. 296 p.

Размещено на Allbest.ru