One of the most notable trends in the business in recent years has been a surge of unions. Globalization, increasing R & D costs, reduced product life cycle, as well as the convergence of technologies are often cited as the most important factors that contribute to this phenomenon. This article develops a framework for several firms unions. Multi-firm alliances can be classified on the basis of different payoff structures, which is a critical difference in their development and to predict the outcome. This article presents four scenarios of several companies of the alliance game to describe the dynamics underlying the interaction between firms and provides industry examples. It offers a number of lessons to help managers improve their ability to manage multiple relations firms alliance. "Hide
by Peter Hwang, Willem P. Burgers Source: California Management Review 18 pages. Publication Date: April 1, 1997. Prod. #: CMR084-PDF-ENG