'Any form of alliance can be challenging and I think often success stems from the identification of the right partner in the first instance - you have to have clear objectives and understand what you need from the firm and why you are undertaking an alliance. If this is not clear then ultimately challenges and barriers will exist which will reduce the success of the alliance. Attention also has to be directed towards people and understanding that people may naturally resist alliances due to the doubling up of roles which can sometimes mean cutbacks or at the very least an additional form of co-operation. With this in mind, emphasis can be placed on the need to examine how people feel and to encourage them or give them an incentive to get talking, get sharing and be creative'.
'Lots of challenges, many of which are people motivated, organisational learning comes from people and therefore you have to be able to motivate people to succeed and motivate people to do more. They have to feel the passion and understand why the alliance has taken place. So yes people as a main challenge. The second challenge relates to the want to protect knowledge that you have and you know is valuable and does this whilst at the same time expecting to be able to get the capabilities of another. Often in an alliance there is some form of power play, which can cause issues'.
The challenges discussed above relate to challenges at different levels including both the individual and the organisational level.
3.4 Chapter Summary
To conclude this chapter, this chapter has presented the statistics related to the 9 variables and has shown overall a strong positive link between strategic alliances across the 100 firms and positive knowledge transfers. Whilst barriers have been recognised and discussed ultimately strategic alliances create an environment where knowledge transfers take place which can then be linked to a number of poisitve outcomes including competitive advantage and innovation. A key theme emerging from this research is however the need to facilitate such knowledge transfers and to learn from the lessons of these organisatons. These recommendations are presented in more detail in the final chapter.
5.0 Conclusions
5.1 Introduction
The final chapter of this research presents the central conclusions of the exploratory study and does so with reference back to the research questions presented in the opening chapter. This chapter then draws out the key themes emerging from the study and does so in reference to the development of key recommendations are areas for future research.
5.2 Research Aims and Objectives
For clarification, the central research objective was 'to explore and examine knowledge transfers within Chinese strategic alliances'. This central objective was supported by three core research questions:
What are the challenges faced by Chinese firms in obtaining knowledge in their international strategic alliances?
How much knowledge transfer exists for Chinese firms in their international strategic alliances?
How do Chinese firms use the knowledge obtained from international strategic alliances to strengthen their competitive position?
The three research questions have been addressed through an extensive and detailed examination of the literature and through the results of the mixed methods methodological approach employed. Each research question will now be addressed in turn in order to provide conclusions, which are research question specific and linked, back to the literature where appropriate.
5.3 Conclusions
In relation to research question 1 'what are the challenges faced by Chinese firms in obtaining knowledge in their international strategic alliances' this research was able to draw out some of those challenges and subsequently move towards a platform of understanding. What has emerg
