Learning, Knowledge Acquisition, and Strategic Alliances

The creation of new knowledge is a major challenge for all organizations. Knowledge provides the capacity for organizational action and new knowledge provides the capacity for organizational renewal. This article examines organizational learning and knowledge acquisition in the strategic alliance context. Alliances provide firms with a unique opportunity to leverage their strengths with the help of partners. In bringing together firms with different skills and knowledge bases, alliances create unique learning opportunities for the partner firms. The article first examines different knowledge conditions that influence the accessibility of alliance knowledge. Knowledge connections that facilitate alliance learning are then discussed. Finally, the article considers the question of why some firms are more effective than others at leveraging and exploiting alliance knowledge.