Adopting a lifecycle perspective to explain the transition from technological innovation to alliance management

Innovative technology‐based products and services are often the result of the syndication of skills and resources of more than one firm. Such inter‐firm arrangements – i.e. strategic technology alliances – need to balance innovation with sustainability, an issue requiring explicit management attention. This paper discusses the issues faced by management within this context. The paper argues that strategic technology alliances require a new set of management practices targeting issues at the inter‐firm level, acknowledging and addressing inter‐firm evolution and the impact this has on the nature and severity of topics on the management agenda. The paper proposes a management framework at the inter‐firm level, with topics arranged according to an inter‐firm lifecycle perspective. Topics for managerial attention and action for the stages of initiation, configuration, implementation, stabilization and transformation are identified. Finally, the paper illustrates the utility of this framework by applying it to a strategic technology alliance case in the process of transition from initiation to commercialization.