Managing international technology alliances: Ballard Power and fuel cell vehicle development

Summary form only given, as follows. Multiparty international strategic alliances are becoming popular vehicles through which firms access resources, share risk, and learn. They are particularly useful in technology-based industries where products are becoming more complex and risk of failure is high. However, firms are profit maximizing actors who may behave opportunistically or defect in order to gain a larger share of the returns. This paper argues that power and interdependence between members, and between the firm and the alliance are key to determining a member\´s capability to act against its partners\´ or alliance\´s interests. The more powerful and less dependent the firm, the greater its freedom to act. The case of Ballard\´s alliance with DaimlerChrysler and Ford finds that alliances "construct" interdependence to balance the asymmetries in their relationships and tie the firms more closely together