• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.49-69
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• 2011

Issues of how firms form collaborative inter-firm alliances, how they nurture the alliance relationships as meaningful ones, and how they evolve and manage collaborations in turbulent market environments deserve increasing research attention. To contribute to filling this void, this study conceptualizes an alliance orientation as a firm's capabilities to help achieve an advantageous alliance performance to its rivals and based on this concept, demonstrates specific process for a successful alliance performance. First, this study empirically explores the influence of a new construct, alliance orientation, on firms' alliance performance. Second, the concept of alliance creativity as a positional mediation variable between alliance orientation and market performance is explained and then empirically explored. Third, alliance performance as a mediator between alliance orientation and market performance is presented and then is empirically reviewed.