Strategic Alliance Management, 3rd Edition

14 ASYMMETRICAL ALLIANCES

DOI: 10.4324/9781003222187-14

Alliances tend to be asymmetrical in nature, such that a dominant partner has a bargaining power advantage due to its superior resource endowments.¹ When such power asymmetries characterize the relationship, alliance partners are engaged in an asymmetrical alliance; the dominant firm can exert power, and the weaker firm risks being taken advantage of. In turn, dominant firms might appropriate the lion’s share of the alliance benefits. Without proper management, power asymmetries create an eminent risk of inequitable value appropriation and sub-optimal alliance performance. Thus partners—especially weaker ones—face a unique challenge: finding the balance between exploiting resource asymmetries ...