Interpartner Differences and Governance Mode Dilemma: The Role of Alliance Scope

Abstract It is generally recognized that the governance structure of an alliance, equity versus nonequity, is an important strategic choice. Since an alliance teams up companies that are inevitably divergent in upstream resource endowment and/or downstream market coverage, it is necessary to select an appropriate governance form to manage the interpartner differences and thus facilitate cooperation. Nevertheless, prior studies have suggested conflicting governance modes despite their adherence to the rationale of transaction cost economics. To address this gap in extant literature, the current study takes into account the moderation of alliance scope in the interfirm difference-governance choice linkage. In sum, this paper argues that, to determine a suitable governance structure, there is a need to concurrently examine how different the partnering firms are from each other and what range the collective activities cover. Hierarchical logistic regression analysis was used to test hypotheses in a sample of 125 bilateral alliances. The empirical findings indicate that nonequity modes will be preferred for the alliances that have less interfirm resource disparity and narrower alliance scopes, while equity-based forms will be chosen for the alliances that have less interfirm market divergence and narrower alliance scopes.

摘要 学界普遍认为，联盟的治理结构（股权型与非股权型）是一项重要的战略选择。由于联盟所整合的企业在上游资源禀赋与/或下游市场覆盖范围上不可避免地存在差异，因此需要选取恰当的治理形式以管控伙伴间的差异，进而促进合作。然而，尽管既往研究均遵循交易成本经济学（Transaction Cost Economics）的理论逻辑，却提出了相互矛盾的治理模式选择主张。为填补现有文献的这一研究缺口，本研究考量了联盟范围在企业间差异-治理选择关联中的调节作用。综上，本文认为，要确定合适的联盟治理结构，需同时考察合作企业间的差异程度，以及集体活动所覆盖的范围。本研究采用层级logistic回归（Hierarchical Logistic Regression）分析，对125个双边联盟样本中的研究假设进行了检验。实证结果表明：当联盟的企业间资源差异较小且联盟范围较窄时，更适合采用非股权型治理模式；而当联盟的企业间市场差异较小且联盟范围较窄时，则应选择股权型治理形式。