Dynamic evolution of alliance portfolios

•We study the microdynamics that determine the choice of partners by the focal actor.•The focal actor and the configuration of its alliance portfolio co-evolve.•The portfolio should acquire the features that best adapt to the focal actor’s aims.•A longitudinal model allows us to analyze the evolution of networks.•The microdynamics exerts significant influences on the choice of partners.

This research advances in the conceptualization and the operationalization of the factors or microdynamics that determine the choice of partners. Most of the literature in this area of research has centered on the individual alliance without taking into account the set of alliances that a firm makes. This research applies a holistic approach, analyzing the set of alliances as a whole and points to the factors related to alliance portfolios that affect the choice of partners. The authors propose a longitudinal model that allows us to analyze the evolution of interorganizational networks. A Simulation Investigation for Empirical Network Analysis (SIENA) has been applied to a sample of 229 firms, analyzing 10,556 strategic alliances established between them over a 12 year period. The results show that certain factors over which managers exercise a degree of control (deliberate endogenous microdynamics) exert significant influences on the choice of partners by the focal actor and thereby on the dynamic configuration of alliance portfolios.