Caracterization of the process of forming strategic alliances

Abstract

The union between companies has represented an increase in their competitive capabilities. The strategic alliances have been shown as alternatives for the adequacy of the conduct and organizational framework of the companies toward the market and the world economic juncture. Nevertheless, researches demonstrate that a good number of enterprises of this nature fail. In this sense, this study aimed at characterizing the formation and sustentation of a strategic alliance which has already been formed for 26 years and, thus, verifying the main foundations which are responsible for the maintenance of the union health. The unity of analysis was the alliance between companies as FEMSA and CVI Indústria de Refrigerantes Ltda. Through the method of case study, using the qualitative technique with the aim of describing the case in study, four managers and one collaborator, all of them linked to the alliance, were interviewed. The research allowed establishing that the main foundations of sustaining the alliance in study are in the individual abilities of the partnerships, in the synergy among individual strategies and in the feeling of mutual confidence which exists. Moreover, it was found out that, in the moments of crisis, the major factor responsible for the maintenance of the business is the determination of the upper management on keeping a climate of enthusiasm between the participants of the strategic alliance.