ABSTRACT
Alliances have been referred to by many other terms such as symbiotic marketing, horizontal integration, collaboration, or strate-gic partnerships. There is a lot of literature on alliances, although most of that has generally focused upon the nature of alliances, e.g., formality, symmetry, and number. Much less has been written about the character-istics of the alliance partners, e.g., strategic goals, administrative struc-tures, range of activities, etc. There are also very few empirical studies in this area. Based on the limited empirical evidence that is available, the author will integrate partnership and partner characteristics to develop a comprehensive theory of alliances. Such an integration will considerably enhance development of alliance theory as well as help potential partners better understand themselves and their partnerships. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <getinfo@haworthpressinc.com> Website: <https://www.HaworthPress.com> © 2003 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]
