Name: Ron
ID : 02912080

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of international strategic alliances? How to select partners for cooperation?
Definition
A global strategic alliance in business is a business relationship between two or more businesses that enables each to achieve certain strategic objectives neither would be able to achieve on their own. The strategic partners maintain their status as independent and separate entities, share the benefits and control over the partnership, and continue to make contributions to the alliance until it is terminated. Strategic alliances are often formed in the global marketplace between businesses that are based in different regions of the world.

Advantages of the Global Strategic Alliance
Advantages
Strategic alliances usually are only formed if they provide an advantage to all the parties in the alliance. These advantages can be broken down to four broad categories.

Organizational advantages: You may wish to form a strategic alliance to learn necessary skills and obtain certain capabilities from your strategic partner. Strategic partners may also help you enhance your productive capacity, provide a distribution system, or extend your supply chain. Your strategic partner may provide a good or service that complements a good or service you provide, thereby creating a synergy. If you are relatively new or untried in a certain industry, having a strategic partner who is well-known and respected will help add legitimacy and creditability to your venture.
Economic advantages: You can reduce costs and risks by distributing them across the members of the alliance. You can also obtain greater economies of scale in an alliance, as production volume can increase, causing the cost per unit to decline. Finally, you and your partners can take advantage of cospecialization where you bundle your specializations