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An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article.
Introduction
This study develops an integrated framework for the performance of maker-buyer strategic alliances. Drawing on the embeddedness concepts of [34], [35] Granovetter (1985, 1992) and other scholars, we argue that maker-buyer alliances are economic actions undertaken to pursue synergies; meanwhile, these economic actions are embedded in their unique social contexts. Past studies that have focused on either economic aspects ([84] Subramani and Venkatraman, 2003; [28] Espino-Rodríguez and Padrón-Robaina, 2006; [112] Zollo et al. , 2002; [21] Das and Teng, 2000; [15] Combs and Ketchen, 1999; [52] Joskow, 1987; [78] Reuer and Arino, 2007; [98] Wang and Zajac, 2007) or social aspects ([19] Dacin et al. , 2007; [30] Garcia-Pont and Nohria, 2002; [74] Podolny, 1994; [58] Koka and Prescott, 2002; [37] Gulati, 1995; [40] Gulati and Gargiulo, 1999; [92], [93] Uzzi, 1996; 1997; [109] Xia et al. , 2008) of strategic alliances have developed only partial theories that do not fully describe the complexity of strategic alliances. By contrast, the current study constructs an integrated framework that synthesizes economic perspectives, including transaction costs economics and the resource-based view, and social perspectives, including social networks and institutionalism, to fully explain maker-buyer strategic alliances and their performance. Although some earlier studies have drawn on both perspectives, they do not depict the relationships among explanatory constructs of both perspectives ([26] Dyer and Singh, 1998; [38] Gulati, 1998; [25] Dyer, 1997; [27] Dyer and Chu, 2003; [13] Chung et al. , 2000). The framework of this study also addresses this problem.
The lack of comprehensive framework to explain for strategic alliances is unfortunate. As [85] Sullivan (1998) and [95] Van de Ven (1989) observed, recent research on business and management has suffered from "narrow vision," such that few constructs or variables are capable of improving its testability. Although partial theories with fewer variables and more rigorous empirical methods contribute to scholarly understanding of strategic alliances, without a comprehensive framework, further relevant research questions cannot be formulated ([85] Sullivan, 1998), and practitioners cannot gain a complete picture of alliances to guide their decisions.
Although a few integrated models of strategic alliances have been proposed (e.g. [6] Borys and Jemison, 1989; [107] Wilson,...