Learning and knowledge development in alliances

This chapter addresses the dynamic learning capabilities of firms within the context of alliances and associated alliance management processes. We focus our discussion on routine processes underlying learning, in alliances and start exploring routine adjustments, instances of improvisation, new adaptations under conditions of novelty, and the dynamic integration of the new learning to the knowledge base of the firm. Our discussion centers on types of knowledge, specifically alliance management, knowledge characteristics, cognitive and social dimensions of learning processes, and the organizational setting of the alliance. Our goal is to explore the state of the art of research addressing how firms learn while they are in alliances and how they access the knowledge of others. We aim neither to provide an eclectic model oflearning in alliances nor to offer a full-blown model containing a comprehensive set of possible relationships, as has been done previously by authors such as Salk & Simonin and Inkpen. However, we intend to shed some light on how learning processes in alliances might differ under conditions of novelty. The logic of the latter focus is based on Eisenhardt and Martin's argument that the role of dynamic capabilities such as learning capabilities depends on the degree of volatility in the environment in which a firm operates, in that learning processes in more volatile environments are associated with adjustments and improvisation