Strategic Alliances as Vehicles for International Growth.

This paper describes the development of strategic alliance research as it relates to successful outcomes and interorganizational growth. According to the author, the link between growth and individual orientations, key decision leaders' attitudes, environmental factors and public policy has been established by analyzing the Strategic Alliance Research Group (SARG) data sets. The SARG project is an informal alliance of researchers in several countries, nine of which are featured in this paper. The author uses a combination of reviews of significant articles and empirical findings from the SARG project to explore the current situation and to identify research opportunities. The author uses micro level research but supplements it with a macro level view of industry-wide and regional alliances that facilitate the growth of small and medium-sized firms.