On the Dialectics of Strategic Alliances

• Published in: Organization science (Providence, R.I.) Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 56 - 69
• Main Authors: de Rond, Mark, Bouchikhi, Hamid
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Linthicum INFORMS 01.01.2004; Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
• Subjects: Alliances; Autonomy; Biotechnology; Business management; Business strategies; Business studies; Case studies; Change agents; Collaboration; Combinatorial chemistry; Cooperation; Dialectic; Dialectics; Drug development; dynamics; Economic theory; Evolution; Lead; Learning; Organization theory; Organizational behaviour; Oxygen; Pharmaceutical preparations; R&D; Research & development; Social construction; Studies; Teleology; Vigilance; Europe
• ISSN: 1047-7039; 1526-5455
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.1030.0037

Using Van de Ven and Poole's (1995) extensive assessment of process theories as an intellectual scaffold, we review theoretical contributions to our understanding of alliance dynamics and process. It appears that of four generic theoretical engines, only three—life cycle, teleology, and evolution—are reasonably well covered in this literature. Process studies informed by a dialectical theory, however, appear to be markedly absent. We explore the characteristics and contributions of a dialectical lens in understanding interorganizational collaborations by invoking a longitudinal case study of a biotechnology-based alliance. The case illustrates the coevolutionary interchange of design and emergence, cooperation and competition, trust and vigilance, expansion and contraction, and control and autonomy. It also emphasizes the importance of treating alliances as heterogeneous phenomena, of alliance performance as subject to social construction, and of unintended consequences as a change agent. The emerging ontological, epistemological, and methodological implications of a dialectical perspective comprise a novel extension to the existing literature.