Strategic alliances´´´´ formation: a theoretical analysis from the theories of resource dependency and transaction costs

Abstract

The strategic alliances’ formation is a clearer and clearer tendency on the current organizational setting. It’s one of the main strategies used by organizations that want to remain competitive. In this sense, this article aims to explain what strategic alliances are, as well as show the reasons that lead contemporary organizations to form this kind of cooperative set, demonstrating its main characteristics and the advantages that can be achieved by establishing such alliances. Af-terwards, an analysis on how the tendency of strategic alliances’ formation can be understood is done according to two different theoretical approaches: the theory of resource dependency and the transaction costs theory. Therefore, it is in-tended to contextualize how and why these alliances are formed, trying to understand these theoretical approaches for, then, verify how they interpret this organizational phenomenon. Finally, this study tries to correlate how these ap-proaches match in an attempt to clarify the reasons of forming cooperative sets.