Abstract

E. Botha and DLR van der Waldt *

The research aims to measure the reliability of applying the three-stage model to strategic alliances and to propose relationship antecedents that may impact on the outcome of strategic alliances. Four relationship outcomes were used to measure strategic alliances and were adopted from the seminal work by Grunig and Huang (2000): ‘Trust’ relates to the reliability and integrity of relationship partners; ‘Commitment’ results from relationship partners’ effort to maintain the organisational relationship; ‘Satisfaction’ encompasses both affection and emotion and is conceptualised as a response to the reinforcement of positive expectations and ‘Control mutuality’ refers to the equality of power and decision-making practices that take place within an organisational relationship. An electronic survey from a sampling population of 2,500 members of The Institute for Procurement and Supply, South Africa (IPSA), materialised in only 154 workable questionnaires (n = 154). This study investigates the impact on the outcome of the types of strategic alliance, the industry, the size of the partnering organisations and the duration thereof. Results indicated that the antecedents did not have a significant influence on the outcomes of strategic alliances. This introduces directions for future research into whether and which antecedents impact on the outcome of organisational relationships.