Enhancing technology management through alliances

Summary form only given. Anderson Consulting notes dramatic increases in the number of corporate alliances being formed, and they do not see any sign that the rate of alliance formation will slow down. This study examines alliances in a sample of software firms based in the northwest USA. In the design of this research we try to address issues raised by previous researchers examining alliances. Specifically, the unit of analysis in this article is not the alliance, it is firms that may or may not have entered into an alliance. The authors examine both horizontal and vertical alliances as ways to address the importance of position in the network, and they identify performance advantages based on network position