Keywords: solutions to obstacles to the development of strategic alliances 1
Obstacles of strategic alliance and systematic solutions
Strategic alliance is a new strategic thinking that can effectively enhance the competitive advantage of enterprises. However, due to various reasons, the failure rate of strategic alliances is high. This paper attempts to analyze the obstacles behind the failure of strategic alliances and seek solutions through systematic thinking. Then, through the understanding of the basic problems of strategic alliance, the whole process of strategic alliance formation is improved, and these six aspects are integrated to determine the basic principles of strategic alliance. On the basis of these analyses, this paper puts forward some specific strategies to find effective ways to overcome these obstacles.
Keywords strategic alliance; Obstacles; solution
Literature review
First, the purpose and significance of this article.
Nowadays, the competition among enterprises is becoming more and more fierce, but there are certain dependencies between enterprises while competing with each other. The strategic alliance based on this relationship embodies the idea of both competition and cooperation, and promoting development through cooperation has far-reaching significance for improving the competitive advantage of enterprises [1]. However, the construction of strategic alliance has great risks, and the failure rate is quite high because of many obstacles. How to effectively solve these obstacles and successfully build and maintain strategic alliances has become a major event related to the future development of enterprises. As we all know, any problem can be regarded as a network composed of interrelated factors, and the development of things is in a system in which all factors interact [2]. Therefore, the thinking of solving the obstacles must not be limited to finding a few simple strategies, but must grasp many factors that affect the normal operation of strategic alliances as a whole with systematic thinking methods, so as to realize the effective solution of the obstacles of strategic alliances. This is the purpose and significance of this paper, that is, to seek ways to solve the obstacles of strategic alliance in a systematic way of thinking, to promote the successful operation of strategic alliance and to play its important role in enhancing the competitive advantage of enterprises.
Second, the trend of theoretical research
The research of enterprise strategic alliance basically belongs to the category of strategic management.
Its concept was put forward by Jane, former president of DEC company in the United States. J. Hopland and management scientist Roger? R. Nigel first proposed it. So far, there is no clear meaning about strategic alliance. In fact, this is a dynamic concept, and its content and form are in the process of constant change. At present, the main concepts used in English literature are: strategic alliance, strategic connection and strategic partnership [3]. Based on the research opinions of most scholars, we can form a relatively unified understanding of the basic concept of strategic alliance, which is generally defined as a strategic alliance formed by two or more enterprises with equal strength or complementary resources through various agreements for the purpose of sharing the market, cooperating in research and development, enjoying resources and enhancing competitiveness. Out of the expectation of the whole market and the consideration of the overall business objectives of the enterprise.
The evolution of strategic alliance has experienced three development forms: traditional strategic alliance, modern strategic alliance and emerging strategic alliance. The earliest strategic alliance can be traced back to the end of 19, and the cartel form in the early stage of industrialization has a history of 100 years. The early alliance mainly refers to price alliance, because in the early stage of industrialization, the product difference was not obvious, and the product competition in the market was mainly manifested in the competition between product prices. However, this kind of alliance is considered as a means to obtain monopoly, which violates the fair principle of market competition and is restricted by legislation in general countries. After World War II, with the increasingly fierce competition and the progress of science and technology, the market has undergone important changes, gradually transitioning from the seller's market to the buyer's market, and the goods are extremely rich. Enterprises began to take the market demand as the guide to meet the individual needs and desires of consumers. In this case, the business environment of enterprises is more complex and changeable, and risks are everywhere. In this context, enterprises often can't achieve their strategic goals with their own resources, so it is inevitable to choose cooperative alliances. At this time, the strategic alliance is basically based on. Since then, the emerging enterprise strategy refers to the knowledge alliance and similar alliance forms that appear with the arrival of knowledge economy. In the knowledge economy society, knowledge has replaced capital as the most important and scarce factor. Through alliance, enterprises can complete knowledge exchange in a semi-internalized state, solve the problem that enterprises can not obtain their scarce knowledge resources efficiently, and cooperate with other organizations to create new capabilities. At present, knowledge alliance mainly includes virtual enterprise alliance and dynamic alliance [5].
In the second half of the 20th century, with the development of strategic alliance, its concrete forms became more and more, and some scholars began to formulate standards and define them reasonably. Yashino and Rangan( 1995) gave three necessary and sufficient conditions for strategic alliance [3]:
(1) Two or more enterprises work together for a series of goals and remain independent after the alliance;
(2) cooperative enterprises share the benefits of the alliance and control the performance of specific businesses, which may be the most remarkable feature that the alliance is difficult to manage;
(3) The cooperative enterprise continues to make contributions in one or more key strategic areas, such as technology and products.
According to this standard, mergers, takeovers, acquisitions and overseas branches of multinational companies are not alliances. We believe that this restriction is meaningful to the study of strategic alliance and can clarify the ambiguity in the concept of alliance. Strategic alliance will mainly include two aspects: the contractual arrangement of the market mainly includes joint research and development, joint product development, long-term supply contract, cooperative production, joint marketing, access to distribution channels and services, and standard inspection; On the other hand, it is property right arrangement, which can be divided into two parts. One part is not to form a new entity, including small equity investment or equity participation and exchange, and the other part is a new enterprise [3].
The above is a relatively unified understanding of the concept, evolution process and specific form definition of strategic alliance. However, due to different perspectives, there are many theories about the formation mechanism of strategic alliances. The following are four most representative theories put forward by foreign experts for your simple understanding:
1, value chain theory [7]
Harvard university professor Michael? Porter established the value chain theory in the book Competitive Advantage (1988). Porter regards an enterprise as a collection of activities in the process of product design, production, sales, delivery and assistance. Porter uses the value chain to show these activities. The value chain of enterprises lies in a wider range of activities, that is, the value system. The potential source of enterprise market competitive advantage (mainly refers to the final product market competitive advantage) is because the value chain of enterprises is different, that is, enterprises have different comparative advantages in each link of the value chain. By establishing strategic alliance, all partners can coordinate or share the value chain together, thus expanding the effective range of enterprise value chain and gaining competitive advantage. Porter's definition of strategic alliance is a long-term agreement between enterprises, which goes beyond normal market transactions, but does not reach the level of merger. It includes technology license, supply agreement, sales agreement and joint venture. The cooperation and complementarity between different enterprises (such as joint ventures in production and marketing) in the value chain is a horizontal alliance. The alliance (such as supply agreement) between the enterprise value chain called vertical connection by Porter and the value chain of suppliers and sales channels is vertical alliance. Two forms, two connections, the result is to obtain optimization and competitive advantage through coordination and cooperation [8].
2, enterprise ability theory [6]
Since the 1990s, the theory of enterprise competence has attracted much attention, which is actually a combination of a series of theories with specific close ties. Including "enterprise resource-based theory", "enterprise dynamic capability theory" and "enterprise knowledge-based theory", these theories hold that the accumulation of internal capabilities, resources and knowledge is the key for enterprises to obtain excess profits and maintain competitive advantage. Due to the complementary resources among enterprises, in order to create greater value in value activities, enterprises form strategic alliances and cooperate with each other in all aspects of the value chain to obtain complementary assets of partners and expand the boundaries of enterprises' utilization of external resources. Theoretical analysis is as follows:
(1) In the mid-1980s, the research of scholars such as Werner Felt, Grant and Barnet led to the emergence of a new school of strategic management theory-resource-based theory. According to this theory, tangible assets and intangible assets constitute the potential capabilities of enterprises. However, the resources of enterprises vary widely, and at the same time, they cannot flow completely, so the construction of strategic alliance becomes a need. Strategic alliance can expand the scope of resource operation from the inside to the outside, promote the rational allocation of resources in a larger scope, thus saving resources and improving their efficiency.
(2) According to the theory of enterprise competence, the competition of final products is only a superficial phenomenon, and the essence of modern enterprise competition lies in the competition of enterprise core competence. The core competence is "the knowledge accumulated in the organization, especially the knowledge about how to coordinate different production skills and organically combine various technical processes". Core competence is unique and difficult to imitate. Only through alliance and cooperation can we learn from each other's strong points and form greater competitiveness, which leads to the establishment of core competence through extensive strategic alliances.
(3) The enterprise knowledge theory put forward by Pawitt, Nursen, Fowles and Grant holds that the key input of production and the most important source of enterprise value is knowledge, and social production is carried out under the guidance of knowledge. An alliance that aims at knowledge transfer and * * * creating new knowledge together is usually called a knowledge alliance. With the advent of the era of knowledge economy, knowledge learning and exchange has become the core of enterprise cooperation. Borg, Dunken and Friedman's research shows that in the early 1980s, 50% of alliance enterprises cooperated for each other's knowledge, so this alliance of transferring and learning knowledge is called knowledge alliance.
3, transaction cost theory [9]
Transaction cost economics believes that economic activities are always accompanied by transactions, and the transaction process has costs. Transaction cost theory takes transaction cost as an analytical tool to study the emergence and development of economic organizations and various systems. Strategic alliance is considered as such a new institutional arrangement, which meets the needs of enterprises to save market transaction costs. By establishing a relatively stable partnership, bilateral transactions can be stabilized, the signing fee can be reduced, and the risk of re-signing can be reduced. Since the 1980s, specialization and division of labor have further expanded the market scale and increased market transactions, resulting in higher and higher transaction costs, which is an important reason for the vigorous rise of strategic alliances since the late 1980s. Strategic alliance provides an independent model for enterprises, which can effectively avoid excessive transaction costs caused by incomplete markets.
4, cooperative competition theory [3]
Since the 1980s, faced with the ever-changing and increasingly fierce external competitive environment, western enterprises, especially multinational companies, have begun to strategically adjust their competitive relations, that is, from opposing competition to large-scale cooperative competition, forming a new concept of competition-cooperative competition. The theory of cooperative competition holds that competition does not exclude cooperation, and sometimes cooperation is more conducive to improving competition efficiency. Therefore, there was a turning point in the study of strategic management in the 1990s, that is, the focus of the study shifted from competition to cooperation. In the process of modern cooperation, new competitors have emerged, a new industrial system has been built and new types of competition have been created. Strategic alliance is such a new type of cooperative competition group, which shows cooperation when creating the market and competition when distributing the market. The goal of all parties in the strategic alliance is to create and share a growing and larger market, which is the embodiment of this new concept of competition.
Because strategic alliance is a relatively new concept, which was introduced to China in recent years, domestic scholars generally follow the ideas of some well-known foreign scholars. However, in some practical operations, many experts also creatively put forward their own views. For example, teachers Wang Fanghua, Zhao Changping and Ge of Antai School of Management of Shanghai Jiaotong University put forward the path dependence of strategic alliances when analyzing the negative effects of strategic alliances [10].
Thirdly, the research methods, development trends, innovative ideas and main contents of the paper.
This paper adopts the method of systematic research, not from a certain angle, but from the perspective of systematic analysis to think about ways to solve the obstacles to the development of strategic alliances. Firstly, the true meaning of strategic alliance is clarified. On the basis of a clear understanding of the basic problems, the search for solutions to the problems is put into the whole process of alliance construction. By improving all aspects of the construction process, the alliance is optimized, and six levels of integration are put forward to further clarify the basic principles and ideas. On this basis, some specific coping strategies are formulated, and through a series of systematic analysis and practice, the methods to overcome the obstacles to the development of strategic alliances are found. The biggest innovation of this paper is reflected in the thinking process of this system. After a general problem occurs, people are eager to find strategies to solve the problem, but they lack the overall understanding of the problem and systematic thinking about the process. This paper overcomes this point and uses systematic thinking to guide the whole paper. In addition, this paper also added some knowledge points in order to be more comprehensive, such as creatively adding organizational integration factors in strategy, tactics, operation, interpersonal relationship and cultural integration, which constituted six levels of integration [2]. In addition, I also put forward my own opinions in many places in the article, so I won't go into details here. The general framework of this paper is introduced below, so as to have a preliminary understanding of its structure.
The overall structure of the article is divided into five parts. The main contents of each part are as follows:
The first part: mainly analyzes six obstacles that affect the development of strategic alliance, including: the formation of path dependence and its negative influence; The appearance of uncooperative behavior; Lagging organization and management; The occurrence of cultural conflicts; Lack of mutual trust and full communication within the alliance; It is difficult to control the time of alliance construction.
The second part: mainly analyzes the great significance of strategic alliance to enhance the competitive strength of enterprises, points out that although it is difficult to develop strategic alliance, it is still necessary to adhere to this kind of organizational innovation, and points out the necessity of actively seeking ways and methods to solve problems.
The third part mainly expounds the basic problems of strategic alliance, including its definition and classification, which lays a theoretical foundation for further in-depth analysis.
The fourth part: mainly from the construction process of strategic alliance to explore effective means to solve problems, and put forward the integration of strategy, tactics, operation, organization, interpersonal relationship and culture, which not only guides business, but also guides ideology.
The fifth part: mainly analyzes six specific countermeasures to overcome obstacles.
References:
Yu Kexin. On strategic alliance and the acquisition of competitive advantage of enterprises [J]. Industrial enterprise management (copied by NPC), P200 1, (3): 78-8 1.
[2] Zhou Jianlin. Management course [M]. P Shanghai: Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Press, 2000. 135 - 137.
[3] Li Xinchun. Enterprise alliance and network [M]. Guangdong: Guangdong People's Publishing House, 2000. 26-33.
[4] Guo Xinwei. Strategic joint venture: a new idea of international operation of enterprises in China [J]. Industrial enterprise management (NPC copying materials), 2 00 1, (3): 74-77.
[5] stone. On the evolution of enterprise strategic alliance [J]. Journal of capital university of economics and business, 2002, (3): 105- 108.
[6] Yao Chen. Theoretical Research and Comment on Enterprise Strategic Alliance [J]. Industrial Enterprise Management (NPC Copying Materials), 2002, (9):47-52.
[7] Huang Liwei. Value chain view of strategic alliance [J]. Enterprise Research, P2002, (3):10/-103.
[8] Michael? Porter. Competitive advantage [M]. Beijing: China Financial and Economic Publishing House, 1988. 102-200.
[9] Rui Mingjie. Management-modern view [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1999. 403-4 1 1.
Zhao Changping, Wang Fanghua, Ge. The negative effects of strategic alliance and its enlightenment [J]. Management of industrial enterprises (NPC copying materials), p. 2002, (10):15-165438.
main body
In today's increasingly fierce competition among enterprises in the world, it is difficult for a single enterprise to slowly accumulate various success factors in such a fierce market. Therefore, it has become the trend of the times in today's world economy that enterprises unite in various ways, rely on each other and compete with each other to build various forms of strategic alliances. However, people often ignore an important fact, that is, the failure rate of strategic alliances is very high. It is estimated that the failure rate of strategic alliances exceeds 60% [1]. Of course, there are many reasons for the failure of strategic alliances, but we must not ignore the hidden problems behind this high failure rate. With the increasing importance of strategic alliance, how to find these problems and take effective measures to solve them will be the key to build a good strategic alliance to improve the competitive advantage of enterprises.
First, the analysis of obstacles to the development of strategic alliances
(A) the alliance is prone to path dependence, resulting in negative effects.
When enterprises form strategic alliances, it is easy to have a solidified relationship and form path dependence. The so-called path dependence refers to the commitment related to decision-making and results, which is usually manifested as high reform cost. The performance of path dependence magnifies the potentially dangerous behaviors that managers are familiar with. These behaviors include: position locking deviation and increasing commitment effect [1]. The former refers to the phenomenon that enterprise decision makers usually tend to stick to the current strategy rather than choose a more attractive strategy. This is because adopting new strategies will bring great risks and increase the opportunity cost. As decision-makers, top managers tend to maintain the status quo and stick to the existing strategy in order to reduce their possible responsibilities, reduce the risk of implementing the new strategy and reduce their workload. The latter means that when faced with negative feedback, managers usually feel the need to prove the wisdom of investing time and money in the alliance. When an enterprise establishes a strategic partnership with other enterprises, in order to confirm the correctness of the alliance decision, senior managers often support the existing alliance and protect its resources. Even if there is a better strategy, top managers generally will not give up this idea and still cling to the existing strategic alliance. After the establishment of strategic alliance, it is easy to produce path dependence in the process of operation. Once a strong path dependence is formed, it will trigger a series of negative effects. For example, this will greatly reduce the flexibility and flexibility of enterprise strategy, unable to adapt to the development and changes of external dynamic environment, or make enterprises give up the opportunity to cooperate with the best strategic partners. , thus greatly increasing the probability of strategic alliance failure.
(B) strategic alliances can easily lead to uncooperative behavior.
Strategic alliance is generally based on the * * * agreement signed by all enterprises in the alliance, which requires alliance members to cooperate in strategy and action in the specific implementation process. However, the looseness of the alliance itself and the differences between members in strategy, organization and culture determine that non-cooperative behavior is very easy to occur in strategic alliances, mainly including the following situations:
1. The unbalanced competitive position of all parties in the alliance leads to the non-cooperation of the alliance [2]. The balance of competitive position of enterprises is the key factor to maintain the alliance. After the start of the alliance, with the exchange of technology and resources between all parties, the competitive strength of one party may be improved, while the relative competitive position of the other party will be reduced, and the balance will be broken, which will naturally lead to non-cooperation.
2. The incomplete symmetry of the interests of all parties in the alliance undermines the equal cooperation of enterprises [2]. Because the income of the alliance is generally divided into two parts, one part is enjoyed by the alliance enterprises, and the other part is distributed according to the contribution of each enterprise to the alliance and other indicators. As a result, influenced by short-term interests, some enterprises seek to maximize their own interests at the expense of the same interests, ignoring the overall interests of the alliance, thus undermining the harmony of the alliance and causing dissatisfaction from the other side.
3. Alliance enterprises set up obstacles to protect their own core competence, which affects the cooperative relationship of the whole alliance [1]. In fact, in the process of strategic alliance implementation, on the one hand, we should use their core competence to cooperate, on the other hand, we should set up various obstacles to prevent the core knowledge from being stolen by alliance partners, which will easily lead to a series of distrust and non-cooperation.
4. Managers at different levels of alliance partners have different understandings of the alliance, which also easily leads to uncooperative behavior [1]. This is because senior managers often realize the benefits and importance of alliances, while middle and lower managers do not agree with this from their own departments, so the implementation of alliances only stays at the strategic level, and middle and lower managers do not cooperate.
5. Strategic alliance partners are different in culture, organization and strategy, which often leads to conflicts in alliance operation.
Generally speaking, there are many factors that cause non-cooperation among enterprises, and non-cooperation itself has a fatal blow to the alliance. Once it comes into being and is not solved effectively and timely, it will lead to the disintegration of the alliance or at least fail to achieve the expected results.
(3) Strategic alliances increase the difficulty of organization and management, which is difficult for general management to keep up with.
Alliance is a kind of non-equity loose cooperation, and its operation has dual mechanisms of administration and market. Because it can not simply rely on administrative orders to solve the interests and conflicts of all parties, it is necessary to establish and operate a scientific management system according to market rules to maintain the normal operation of the organization [2]. This is quite difficult for a single enterprise. Many alliances fail because the organization and management can't keep up with the needs of alliance development, and some major issues such as strategic planning, implementation and coordination have made mistakes due to lack of organizational guarantee, which leads to alliance failure.
(D) Strategic alliances can easily lead to cultural conflicts.
Strategic alliance is not only a business alliance, but also a cultural integration and exchange. However, the cultural integration of different organizations is very difficult. Because each enterprise has its own unique corporate culture, this cultural difference will be transformed into management differences, thus increasing the difficulty of strategic alliance management. When the cultural conflicts and cultural exchanges between all parties in an alliance enterprise cannot be effectively integrated, it may weaken the corporate culture and reduce the cultural cohesion of alliance partners. If cultural conflicts are not resolved in time and effectively, it will lead to the escalation of contradictions and conflicts and threaten the stability of the alliance.
(e) Alliances often lack mutual trust.
Strategic alliances are usually based on the consistency of goals, tasks, ideas, economy and culture, which requires alliance members to actively cooperate in strategic alliances and actions. However, because strategic alliance partners are independent entities, they are used to understanding and treating alliance problems with their own culture, organization and strategic goals, which makes it easy to understand or distrust the behavior of the other company. On the other hand, when participating in cooperation, all parties in the alliance are worried that corporate secrets will be exposed to each other because of the alliance, and often take some protective and preventive measures to cooperate with reservations, which leads to the decrease of trust and affinity between the parties in the alliance and greatly inhibits the effect of the alliance.
(6) It is difficult to grasp the time to build a strategic alliance.
Spekman's survey in 1996 shows that large and complex alliances need to spend a lot of time to build their trust. Usually, the time interval from the establishment to the operation of the alliance is three to four years [1]. This is not only because it takes a lot of time to establish organizational relations, but also it takes longer for top managers to establish private networks and alliance trust. Although a long period of time is beneficial for managers to have enough time to solve possible problems in the alliance, it also extends the time for strategic decision-making. In the rapidly changing business environment, too long time will lead to the failure of the strategy. Or lose some good opportunities. Therefore, the failure to control the time reasonably will also pose a considerable threat to the development of the alliance.
Obviously, there are great risks and difficulties in the construction of strategic alliance, but should we give it up? For this question, we can get a clear answer through the analysis in the next part.
Second, the importance of strategic alliance development analysis
Pp strategic alliance is inevitable for many enterprises seeking more development opportunities, because this new strategic idea has extensive and important significance for enterprise management.
Pp Fundamentally speaking, the significance of strategic alliance lies in helping enterprises adapt to the ever-changing internal and external environment, constantly strengthen and develop their own core competencies, and maintain and gain competitive advantages [2]. This is because enterprises must rely more on their own unique resources and capabilities, that is, core capabilities, and competitive advantages based on this capability in the dynamic environment. However, the core competence is unique and difficult to imitate. It will be a long process to rely only on the development and gradual cultivation of the enterprise itself. How to improve the core competitiveness of enterprises quickly and effectively will directly affect the position of enterprises in the market competition. This requires enterprises to correctly identify and select resources and capabilities that conform to the principles of enterprise competitive strategy, and make full use of these resources and capabilities, continuously strengthen investment, learning and accumulation through various means, and form new competitive advantages through innovation and integration. The construction of strategic alliance is one of the ways for enterprises to open up channels, create environment and learn and accumulate in order to cultivate core competence and gain competitive advantage. Through mutual learning and complementarity among enterprises, the strength and competitive potential of enterprises can be enhanced rapidly. Nowadays, product alliances based on complementary resources or risk-taking are gradually changing to new knowledge alliances. The main purpose of this knowledge alliance is to learn from strategic partners, acquire new knowledge by establishing strategic alliances, and at the same time, link it with their own core competence, accelerate the development and promotion of their own core competence to create value. It is characterized by a loose network of organizational resources and a long-term reciprocal operation form, which enables enterprises to learn from each other, thus providing new opportunities for enterprises to identify new market opportunities and increase organizational capital, and providing enterprises with an environment and conditions conducive to developing and upgrading their core capabilities. In the final analysis, the significance of strategic alliance is ultimately reflected in the creation of competitive advantage and competitiveness. As an organizational innovation, it has become one of the most important competitive strategic means [3].
From a specific point of view, the significance of strategic alliance is more prominent and distinct, mainly in the following aspects:
1. acquire advanced technology or realize * * * to enjoy technical resources.
Not all companies have the same advantages, so many companies seek to establish alliances in order to find out.
For partners with complementary technical advantages, through joint efforts, two or more companies can introduce advanced products to the market with faster speed and higher quality, and realize the * * * enjoyment of technical resources. In addition, for enterprises with relatively weak technical strength, by establishing close cooperative relations with enterprises with certain technological advantages, they can learn and master each other's technologies and skills in continuous collaboration, accelerate their own technological progress, and avoid the huge risks and costs of their own development [4]. Enterprises in China have taken many positive actions in this respect and established close technical cooperation relations with many foreign enterprises in telecommunications, automobile and machinery industries [5].
2. Enhance the ability to resist risks and realize risks * * *
With the increasingly fierce market competition, the risk of enterprise management is also increasing. If the enterprise itself lacks capital, technology, talents and experience in international operation, it will undoubtedly increase this risk. The establishment of strategic alliance will effectively reduce the negative impact of this uncertainty on enterprises. On the one hand, through cooperation, enterprises can obtain external resources such as capital, technology and talents, exchange information and transfer technology with each other, and improve their ability to resist risks by improving their own strength [4]. On the other hand, through cooperation, risks can be effectively dispersed, because all parties in the alliance share risks, thus reducing the adverse consequences of emergencies on any participating enterprise.
3. Explore new markets
Any enterprise, especially large enterprises, has its own relatively perfect sales network. When they plan to expand their own market, they are faced with the problem of establishing a sales network for the new market. If related enterprises can establish strategic cooperative relations on the basis of competition and expand the market by using competitors' existing sales networks, they can avoid the repeated construction of sales networks and unnecessary competitive sales, and can also share each other's fixed costs. This is especially applicable when enterprises expand the international market. Most of the outstanding enterprises in China have relatively perfect domestic sales networks. If their products want to enter the international market, but they lack sufficient marketing power, they can find a foreign enterprise that also has high-quality products and lacks sales channels in the China market for strategic alliance, and use the domestic surplus sales capacity in exchange for the opportunity to enter the international market [6].
4. Achieve economies of scale
By pooling the resources of two or more companies, strategic alliances can usually provide the most effective scale for engaging in a specific business. If the alliance can be effectively combined and integrated, it can often make enterprises play a huge synergistic effect that the whole is greater than the sum of individual enterprises. This is especially important for SMEs. Small and medium-sized companies can unite and compete successfully with large global companies. Imagine that none of Airbus's European companies can have enough investment to compete with Boeing on the same scale and strength without jointly forming a commercial aircraft manufacturer. Even the largest companies in the world, such as General Electric, cooperate with other companies to produce products more effectively.
Therefore, although there are great risks in the implementation of strategic alliance and many obstacles will be encountered in the development process, we cannot give up because of this.
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