Seeking partners in international alliances: The influence of cultural factors

Insufficient attention during the search and selection stages of a prospective partnership may jeopardize the cooperation agreement's chances of success. Therefore, in both of these phases, prospective partners must consider factors that could lead to problems in the cooperation agreement or hinder the international alliance. Following a literature review, the study presents five hypotheses to determine how considering the partner's country of origin, the partner's size, and trust between partners can alleviate future problems during the agreement. Regression analysis using data from 83 firms tests these hypotheses. Findings reveal the importance of trust and highlight an interesting line of future research into the role of the partner's size.