Towards a typology of strategic alliances for small firms

• Many studies have been conducted on strategic alliances, but mainly from large and medium-sized companies’ perspectives. This work concentrates on small firms and suggests a typology of small firm alliances to reveal their opportunities and constraints relating to alliance formation and development. By combining network and Entrepreneurship orientation (EO), an alliance typology consisting of four categories: (1) stable-proactive, (2) stable-innovative, (3) dynamic-proactive and (4) dynamic-innovative is developed. The proposed typology is exemplified by the help of in-depth case illustration which performs a two-fold function: it examines the applicability of the typology and it offers guidance to the entrepreneurs as how to combine effectively network and EO and also position the firm in the appropriate typology in managing business. All the alliance type can be appropriate for small firms, but the nature of business will decide which type will be employed. One limitation of this study is the focus on service firms. Two studies can be suggested in this regard: a focus exclusively on the manufacturing firms to compare with the result of the current study and to combine both service and manufacturing firms to illustrate the theoretical contribution.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Strategic alliances

Entrepreneurial orientation

Small firms

Service firms

Business studies

Företagsekonomi

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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