Strategic Alliances in the Technology Sector

Strategic alliances are one of the key drivers in today’s global economy and they have gradually replaced vertical integration as the chief method of corporate expansion. Business-to-Business alliances provide organizations with a variety of benefits including enhancing the capability of organizations and helping to extract maximum value from available resources. While applicable to any industry, strategic alliances are particularly important in the technology sector. This course defines and discusses the roles of various types of strategic alliances in the technology sector, including informal alliances, partnerships, joint ventures, and outsourcing arrangements. Students will use case studies to explore strategies for managing profitability and leveraging these external business relationships. Students will analyze successful and unsuccessful alliances from the prospective of each alliance participant, 3rd party vendors, customers, and a variety of other stakeholders.