Case study and anecdotal evidence suggest that strategic alliances often develop from interpersonal relationships between their founders. Research has generally ignored how these relationships shape individual and organizational outcomes. The authors draw from social network and organizational control research using an experimental design that isolates how the alliance negotiators’ friendship level and job discretion affect the alliance structure and scope and the interpersonal outcomes of trust, satisfaction, and conflict. Results indicate that friendship affects individual-but not alliance-level outcomes. Discretion is associated with more ambitious scope in the alliance agreement. The authors discuss these findings’ relevance for effective alliance management.
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