Do firms create value through international strategic alliances?

Intent refers to a firm's initial propensity to view collaboration as an opportunity to learn (Hamel, 1991, p. 90). Comparing the intent to form alliances between Western and Japanese firms, Hamel indicates that most Western firms possess substitution intent to substitute their competitiveness in a specific area for their own lack of skills, whereas the Japanese partners seem to have explicit learning intent to actually internalize their partners’ skills. When the internalization intent is strong in a company, the skills and knowledge acquired from the partner are important to the growth of the whole company (Hamel, 1991). However, if both partners possess equal intent to internalize the other's skill, distrust and conflict may occur to threaten the stability of alliances (Hamel, Doz, & Prahalad, 1989; Madhok, 2006).