Contractual form in repeated alliances with the same partner: The role of inter-organizational routines

•Real effect of partner-specific experience on the governance choice of alliances.•Analysis of a sample of technology alliances carried out by European firms.•Partners tend to repeat the governance form used in the past.

SummaryPrevious research has found that the choice between joint ventures and contractual agreements presented some peculiarities in repeated alliances with the same partner, although the empirical evidence was far from conclusive. In this paper, we extend the insights of the growing literature on interorganizational routines to the field of strategic alliance governance. We argue that when developing new collaborative projects with the same partner, firms tend to repeat the same contractual form used in previous projects to take advantage of the governance routines developed in the past. Support for our predictions is provided by an analysis of a sample of technology alliances carried out by European firms.