Trust Building and Boundary Spanning in Cross-Border Management

8Micro-Foundation Thinking in Alliance Learning

Role of Boundary Spanners’ Theory of Mind

Xinlu Qiu and Sven A. Haugland

8.1 Introduction

Researchers have argued that learning, in terms of accessing and acquiring knowledge, skills, and competencies from partners, is one of the foremost motivations for international alliance formation, since knowledge and information are critical to value creation within organisations (Grant and Baden-Fuller 1995, 2004; Hamel 1991; Khanna, Gulati and Nohria 1998; Kogut and Zander 1992). Organisations that can effectively acquire information and knowledge from outside actors, as well as integrate the information and knowledge into unique internal knowledge, can experience competitive advantages (Chen, Lee and ...