Alliances articles - Kale&Singh: Building firm capabilities through learning: the role of the alliance learning process in alliance capability and firm-level alliance success

12 important questions on Alliances articles - Kale&Singh: Building firm capabilities through learning: the role of the alliance learning process in alliance capability and firm-level alliance success

The alliance learning process involves articulation, codification, sharing and internalization of alliance management know-how. How is this process directed? (K&S)

This process is directed toward learning, accumulating and leveraging alliance management know-how, to develop a firm's alliance management skills.

What is meant with the articulation of alliance know-how? (K&S)

The efforts of accessing and externalizing individually held knowledge into explicit knowledge, to the extent that is possible (= articulation). Because articulated knowledge is easy to access, store and hence it facilitates learning.

Why (2) can articulation of alliance management knowledge be extremely beneficial? (K&S)

1 It helps a firm create a record of its prior alliance history, which otherwise lapses over time due personnel turnover.
2 The process can facilitate ex post sense-making of actions and decisions in prior alliances as managers talk about or reflect on them.
>Hereby managers identify both effective and suboptimal execution (uitvoering) of particular tasks during alliance formation and management, and the practices associated with them.
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What is meant with the codification of alliance know-how (K&S)

Codification involves creating and using knowledge objects or resources such as alliance guidelines, checklists, or manuals to assist action or decisions-making in future alliance situations.

What is the focus of codification? (K&S)

Focus on providing the content (know-what), the methodology (know how), and even the rationale (know why) for executing and managing various alliance related tasks. It does not only help firms to replicate and transfer alliances best practices, but also identify or select what those best practices are. Codification is expected to enhance a firm's decision making and actions in its alliances and consequently lead to greater alliance success over time.

What is meant with sharing of alliance know-how? (K&S)

Knowledge sharing involves exchanging and disseminating (verspreiding) individually and organizationally held alliance management knowledge, which is both tacit and codified, through interpersonal interaction within the organization.

Communities of personal interaction plays a central role in knowledge sharing within firm (K&S). Why? (3)

1 They provide a means for regularly and systematically sharing alliance management knowledge that has already been articulated or codified by the firm.
2 It provides a forum to share individually held tacit knowledge through direct person-to-person interaction between managers (since tacit knowledge is more easily shared through dialogue between individuals than through knowledge objects).
3 They also play a role in helping managers better conceptualize the alliance knowledge that is being shared or disseminated throughout the firm.

For firms to enjoy repeated success with given tasks, it is important that persons responsible for managing those tasks, individually possess the relevant know how of managing them. Knowledge internalization is an important role in this. What is meant with internalization of alliance know-how? (K&S)

Knowledge internalization involves efforts to facilitate absorption of accumulated organizational level know-how by individuals. Overall this internalization facilitates individuals' absorption of alliance management know-how and thereby helps them manage alliance more effectively.

Firms with an alliance function achieve greater success because of the several benefits of that function. What is the function? (K&S)

The alliance function, which is a dedicated structural entity, is explicit responsible for managing and coordinating firm-wide alliance-related initiatives and activities. Is clearly best positioned to lead and manage the implementation of the complex task of the alliance learning process.

What is one of the main benefits of the alliance function? (K&S)

That the function becomes the focal (centraal) point for initiating and managing the learning and accumulation of alliance management know-how within firms. Firms with stronger alliance learning process, have greater alliance success.

How are the alliance function, alliance capability, alliance success and the alliance learning process linked? (K&S)

-A dedicated alliance function > influences the firms' alliance capability and alliance success.
-Alliance function > linked to the alliance learning process. So the alliance learning process seems like a higher-order dynamic ability that helps a firm learn, accumulate and leverage alliance know-how, to modify and improve its operational alliance management skills and achieve overall success:

Alliance function >> Alliance learning process >> Alliance succes

Interfirm knowledge sharing routines are one of the four majors drivers of competitive advantage in individual alliances. What should companies do to have alliance capabilities and greater overall alliance success? (K&S)

They certainly need to have a dedicated alliance function to manage their alliance. But they also need to have a strong alliance learning process to articulate, codify, share and internalize alliance management know-how since it has a direct impact on a firms' alliance capability and success. It acts as one of the main mechanisms through which the alliance function leads to greater alliance success.

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