Strategic alliances have emerged as an important element of firms' strategies. Following suit
research on alliances has blossomed concentrating on the various forms alliances take the
reasons of their existence and increasingly embracing questions of alliance management and
governance tasks. However most contributions which address the alliance governance problem are
yet rather vague and selective in their conception of alliance governance structures as well as
the factors which influence their suitability. The aim of this book is to further advance our
understanding of alliance governance and to provide recommendations on the problem of alliance
governance design. Following the configurational approach Sascha Albers develops a
comprehensive model of alliance governance systems. He identifies relevant structural and
instrumental design parameters and analyzes major contingency factors including member firms'
cultures and alliance experience number of alliance partners and trust which impact the
design parameters' suitability. He finally deducts five configurations or ideal types of
alliance governance systems which can be regarded as blueprints for the practitioner and as
platform for further research for the alliance scholar. Potential readership includes scholars
of strategic management and organization theory interested students in these areas as well as
practitioners involved in formulating and implementing alliance strategies.
