.597**
.662**
523**
.567**
.615**
.543**
1
8. Overall learning
.452**
.333**
.646**
.391*
.433*
.414*
.661**
1
* < 0.05, ** < 0.01
Correlations between variables
The initial, exploratory statistical analysis is intended to examine the relationships between variables, which provide a starting point for future research to expand upon, and also helps to develop recommendations directed towards strategic alliances. As shown in the correlation the two statements 'Employees have the chance to talk across the alliance and use this to develop new ideas and creativity within the firm' and 'Errors and mistakes are always discussed and used to learn' were positively correlated r =. 392, < 0.05). This reinforces the idea stemming from the literature that in order to learn there is a need to promote employee involvement but also create a culture where employees feel able to make mistakes something which might be a lesson learnt from the knowledge transfer process itself which stimulates competitive success. Within the alliance environment this type of focus on mistakes may be needed to develop a future focus on sustainability and vision within the organisation. Mistakes therefore from the perspective of reflective learning are deemed to be part and parcel of long-term learning and thus reinforce competitive success. As also revealed in the table, the facilitation of knowledge transfers measured by the scale item 'The firm has instruments in place that facilitate knowledge transfers e.g. mixed department meetings' and wide decision making measured by the scale item 'Decision making within the firm is a firm wide process involving all employees where possible' were positively correlated r = .632, < 0.01). At the 0.01 level, this shows a strong correlation and reinforces the need to ensure that knowledge transfers are not contained in certain areas of the organisation but are instead promoted from a systems perspective. This holistic appraisal of knowledge transfers is thus used to stimulate the competitive success of the organisation. Instruments also have to be in place to transfer explicit forms of knowledge but also must be in place to encourage more implicit forms of knowledge, the type and nature of such knowledge was explored in more detail in the open-ended questions. An interesting correlation was found between new and valuable knowledge measured by the scale item 'the company has acquired new and valuable knowledge from the other firm' and all of the major variables measured in this study. Participants only stated this as being high if they were able to reinforce the other factors measured. For example, the lower the answer for 'employee learning is encouraged between firms', the lower the overall score attributed to the extent to which learning has arisen as a result of the strategic alliance. This is an interesting finding and one that highlights the need for learning to be an organisational process and not something that is contained within certain departments or individuals only. This links to the work of Sung and Choi (2014) who highlight the importance of creating a learning context within the organisation.
3.3 Open-ended questions
To support the correlational analysis above, three open-ended questions were addressed. These questions will be analysed in a interpretative manner to draw out the key themes to formulate the discussion.
Open-Ended Question 1: 'What does valuable knowledge look like to you based on your experience of strategic alliances?'
Responses to this question varied and a selection of responses are presented below:
'It is a hard question to define or think about what valuable knowledge looks like but I think ultimately based on our experience it is something which cannot easily be replicated. It is therefore valuable as it might not be easy to obtain and as a result it provides a source of competitive advantage. For us, it was about gaining valuable insight into the German market which we would not have had access t
