Strategic Alliances in Banking

Defines the concept of strategic alliances as well as outlining the potential benefits and disadvantages of entering into such relationships. This will facilitate critical reviews of the nature and type of relationship that best satisfies their individual needs. Strategic alliances are a means of rationalizing business operations and improving the overall competitive position of a company and are important because of the sheer speed and dynamism of technological change which has opened up a wide range of new activity areas. Banking firms, however, experienced difficulty in defining the type of relationship that best suits their needs. To a significant extent this is due to the fact that a great deal of confusion exists regarding the term “strategic alliances”. In particular parties have difficulty in distinguishing strategic alliances from other forms of organizational relationships.