Understanding alliances: a review of international aspects in strategic marketing

This paper presents a review of the recent literature related to international strategic business alliances utilizing the conceptual foundations presented by Varadarajan and Cunningham in the 1995 special edition of Marketing Science as a baseline. Employing a parsimonious framework, alliances are defined, motives are identified, structures and governance methods are considered, critical success factors are recognized and outcomes are analyzed. This paper elucidates the relationships between the major components of the alliance literature, presents a conceptualization of an integrated framework and provides direction for future research.