Implementing product development alliances

This study examines the implementation of product development alliances in the North American telecommunications equipment industry. The purpose of the paper is to: (1) develop a model of alliance implementation, (2) empirically test the model, and (3) identify determinants of alliance implementation. The model is tested on two dimensions: (1) using performance evaluation criteria (expected results) and (2) using perceptions of actual performance (actual results). Performance evaluation criteria explain a much larger amount of variation in alliance performance than does perceptions of actual performance, suggesting that while managers are able to identify what is important to implementing strategic alliances, they have difficulty actually achieving optimum performance.