The Effects of E-business on the Performance of Strategic
Alliances
By: Hung-Wen Lee and Jhy-Hong Ding
What this article discusses is the
different affects that E-business plays on the performance of strategic
alliances. E-business and strategic alliances are both ways that businesses can
gain a competitive advantage in the global market. With the growth of
communication and information technologies companies have found it beneficial
to use these technologies to help them gain this competitive advantage. Organizations are able experiment and see what
strategies would work with the implementation of e-commerce.
The writers Hung and Lee present 10 hypotheses
that they test in order to determine their final results. The ten hypotheses
presented are:
H1a-3c: The relationships
of both partners, the better communication of both partners and the greater
level of alliance performance all depends on the greater extent of e-business
and how much resources are invested to it.
H2a-2c: The extent of
similarity between alliance members is determined by the higher level of relationship
expectations, communication expectations and trusts between both alliance members.
H3a-3b: The extent of
expectations of the future relationships between the alliances is determined by
the higher level of communication and trust between the alliances.
H4: When the extent of
communication between the alliances is high then so is the trust.
H5: When there is a high
level of trust between the alliances, the performance between alliances will be
higher.
The article also presents a model the
helps in discovering the relationship between e-business and strategic alliances.
The model presented uses many variables such as strategic alliance familiarity,
alliance and communication expectations and the trust between both partners.
Figure 1: Research Framework
The authors found that the
model they used to test their results found that some of the hypothesis that
they suggested were accurate. Although the implementation of e-business
improves communication it does not play a direct role of the performance of
strategic alliances. It is the different applications that have an effect on
alliances. What their testing found is the positive level of trust and
communication between strategic alliances was based on the expectations of
future relationships and the level of e-business.
My thoughts are similar
the results that were found. I believe that e-business can help strategic
alliances in many ways but the most important thing for strategic alliances is
to develop a good level of trust and communication with one another.
Article Citation:
Hung-Wen, Lee, and
Ding Jhy-Hong. "The Effects Of E-Business On The Performance Of Strategic
Alliances." Total Quality Management & Business Excellence 21.7 (2010): 707-724. Business Source Complete.
Web. 3 Aug. 2012.
