IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/indcch/v21y2012i3p763-809.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The evolution of alliance portfolios: the case of Unisys

Author

Listed:
  • Dovev Lavie
  • Harbir Singh

Abstract

How do alliance portfolios evolve? We develop grounded theory based on Unisys' case, which reveals how exogenous technological changes at the industry level and shifts in a firm's strategy shape the composition of partners and the nature of alliance relationships. We identify four evolutionary processes: responding to external stimuli, breaking off inertial pressures, enabling coevolution, and restructuring and realigning the alliance portfolio. We shift attention from alliance formation decisions to changes in the nature of alliances and partner characteristics throughout the duration of the alliance portfolio. We suggest that the evolution of alliance portfolios cannot be fully explained by path dependence, life-cycle patterns, or proactive design. Instead, alliance portfolios are shaped by environmental stimuli and conflicting organizational processes. Copyright 2012 The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Associazione ICC. All rights reserved., Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Dovev Lavie & Harbir Singh, 2012. "The evolution of alliance portfolios: the case of Unisys," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 21(3), pages 763-809, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:indcch:v:21:y:2012:i:3:p:763-809
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/icc/dtr058
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pangarkar, Nitin & Yuan, Lin & Hussain, Sairah, 2017. "Too much of a good thing? Alliance portfolio size and alliance expansion," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 477-485.
    2. Zhang, Guiyang & Gao, Yuchen & Qi, Yong, 2022. "National depth and R&D alliance portfolio international expansion: The moderation of technological discontinuity and long-term orientation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    3. Pinar Ozcan, 2018. "Growing with the market: How changing conditions during market growth affect formation and evolution of interfirm ties," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(2), pages 295-328, February.
    4. Hurmelinna-Laukkanen, Pia & Möller, Kristian & Nätti, Satu, 2022. "Orchestrating innovation networks: Alignment and orchestration profile approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 170-188.
    5. Navid Asgari & Kulwant Singh & Will Mitchell, 2017. "Alliance portfolio reconfiguration following a technological discontinuity," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(5), pages 1062-1081, May.
    6. Castro, Ignacio & Casanueva, Cristóbal & Galán, José Luis, 2014. "Dynamic evolution of alliance portfolios," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 423-433.
    7. Haider, Sajjad & Mariotti, Francesca, 2016. "The orchestration of alliance portfolios: The role of alliance portfolio capability," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 127-141.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:indcch:v:21:y:2012:i:3:p:763-809. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/icc .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.