فرایند تحلیل شبکه ای برای معیارهای انتخاب شریک در اتحاد استراتژیک

As world economic activities intensify and trade barriers fall, the formation of viable strategic alliances in the high-tech industry gains importance and accelerate of necessity. However, the selection of a suitable partner for strategic alliance is not an easy decision, involving a host of complex considerations. This paper proposes an integrated approach of analytic network process (ANP) to consider both tangible and intangible factors and to optimize the paid off earn by company from strategic alliance. The data was collected from top management teams (TMT) of LCD industry to evaluate criteria and sub-criteria for strategic alliance process. Based on ANP results, this study used a hypothetical problem in selecting strategic partners to demonstrate the results. The main contribution of this paper is that the complex business problems for strategic alliance are conceptualizing to help business practitioners.

According to Drucker (1996), the biggest change in business field is the growing of partnership among companies around the world. Kalmbach Jr. and Roussel (1999) predict that within five years, strategic alliances will account for 16–25% of medium company value and 40% of the market value for about a quarter of the companies. This means that in five years, alliances will represent $25–$40 trillion in value. As 21st-century organizational systems evolve, one of the emergent themes is the relative importance of partnerships and strategic alliances. An increasing number of companies subscribe to the idea that developing long-term collaboration and cooperation, partnering, can take significant wastes out of the supply chain and provide a route to securing the best commercial advantage. So in this “co-opetition” era, competitive advantages rely not only on internal capability and resources, but also on close cooperation and solid relationships with external organizations (Claycomb and Frankwick, 2004 and Kwon and Suh, 2004). A firm’s selection of an appropriate strategic alliance partner is a critical decision (Hitt, Tyler, Hardee, & Park, 1995). Partner selection determines a strategic alliance’s mix of skills, knowledge, and resources, its operating policies and procedures, and its vulnerability to indigenous conditions, structures, and institutional changes (Child & Faulkner, 1998). Research to date has demonstrated that partner selection is a consciously strategic and specific decision in the creation of a strategic alliance, and that the importance and variation of the criteria used by a firm in selecting a partner are reflective of a wide range of factors, many of which derive from a firm’s needs (Dacin et al., 1997 and Hitt et al., 2000). Yet, partner selection is an essential factor influencing the performance of alliances (Ariño and de la Torre, 1998 and Ireland et al., 2002). Also, alliances can be sources competitive advantage (Dyer & Singh, 1998) and may “shift the very basis of competition to a new level – from firm vs. firm to (…) rival groupings of collaborators” (Powell, 1987), which means that the performance of a firm is intimately tied to the performance of its collaborative engagements (Dyer & Nobeoka, 2000). Strategic alliances are partnerships of two or more corporations or business units that work together to achieve strategically significant objectives that are mutually beneficial. The potential of strategic alliances strategy is enormous. If implemented correctly, some authors claim it can dramatically improve an organization’s operations and competitiveness (Brucellaria, 1997). Theory on partner selection in interfirm collaborations remains in general weak and more research is required to make it relevant for managers in particular contexts (Chung et al., 2000 and Hitt et al., 2000). Jones, Hesterly, Fladmoe-Lindquist, and Borgatti (1998) argue that we need more understanding of how alliance partners are chosen in multiparty collaborations among other issues in terms of “the criteria these selections are based upon.” Reuer (1999) suggests that deriving value from strategic alliances “…requires companies to select the right partners, develop a suitable alliance design, adapt the relationship as needed and manage the endgame appropriately.” Firms must identify and develop alliances with partners that have critical complementary resources (Harrison, Hitt, Hoskisson, & Ireland, 2001). Strategic alliances can be valuable for firms in emerging markets because of the assets that partners bring to the relationship (Hitt et al., 2000). According to the Coopers (1997) study, 50% of firms involved in alliances market their goods and services internationally versus 30% of nonallied participants. Access to resources and capabilities from partners may be especially valuable to firms in countries undergoing transition to market economies (Zahra, Ireland, Gutierrez, & Hitt, 2000). Technology transfer is not only viewed as being significant to the success of a strategic alliance, according to Hsieh (1997): “host countries now demand more in the way of technology transfer”. As evidence of this growing trend, Hsieh cites China as a prime example. Gaining access to technology is important to TFT-LCD industry because it takes a long time to internally develop the know-how to create new technology and use it independently (Schilling, 1998). To be competitive, these firms need to gain access to and learn the necessary technological knowledge; armed with this knowledge, the firms can become more entrepreneurial (Filatotchev et al., 2000 and Liu et al., 2000). Strategic alliances strategy has been prescribed as an important tool for attaining and maintaining a competitive advantage. In addition, strategic alliances concept is growing in appeal to organizations because of the cost savings achieved in executing operations. Indeed, many companies are forming alliances looking for the best quality or technology or the cheapest labor or production costs. Strategic alliances partners should be selected based on their expertise in the operation and their cultural fit with the firm. The key question of this paper is how firms should select alliance partners for entering competitive advantage. These are the motivating questions behind this research.

Finding the partner selection criteria and developing an appropriate partners selection model are the most important issues before a strategic alliance is formed. It is imperative for decision-makers to devise, identify and recognize effective partner selection criteria prior to forming a joint service pact. In order to design a more effective decision-making process, this study applies ANP approach for selecting strategic-alliance partners for the LCD industry. By using relative measurement that deal with different fluctuations of economic condition or the rapid technological change, ANP is valuable method to control and forecast the dynamics of those conditions toward production side (Saaty, 2006). The study shown that Taiwan’s LCD producers considered complimentary capabilities is the most important characteristics for prospective partners. Taiwan’s LCD industry has already advanced technology, thus, partner who has wider market coverage, diverse customer, and good quality distribution system is preferable than other criteria. It is understandable that most of Taiwan’s LCD producers have lack of knowledge, particularly on B (business) to C (consumer) in international market. Moreover, they are highly valued on intangible assets, which are captured of proprietary knowledge and reputation. The third concern is marketing knowledge capability. The lowest two criteria are degree of fitness and characteristics of the partner. An example is demonstrated to put it into practice. Even though some might say that complicated decision-making methods would caused inferior to intuition in making good judgments, but it can be said that ANP are able to reduce judgmental in strategic partner selection process. Future research could involve refining the data collections described in this paper through a series of interviews for TMT members from other industries. Once these ideas have been transformed into a research framework, data could be collected and the framework could be tested.