Risk in interorganizational networks and strategic alliances

Setting up strategic alliances and trying to attain the intended goals is a highrisk venture. Most research into this topic is confined to already established alliances. This research will focus on perceived performance risks by organizations considering a possible strategic venture. Following other scholars, we focus on performance risks. But unlike previous research we have made an effort to uncover the underlying dimensions of these risks. We will show that the risk perception influences the readiness towards the possible setup of a strategic alliance. Organizations with a high risk perception are less inclined to set-up a strategic alliance. Although we expected that organizations with a higher risk perception would also opt for more risk mitigation, our findings shows the opposite. The research shows that the ability to improve processes is an intermediate explaining variable. Organizations accustomed to continuous improvement and integral quality management have a lower risk perception towards the set up of strategic alliances and also show more readiness to take risk mitigation measures