2025 Volume 22 Pages 101-126
With rapid changes in the external environment, increasing uncertainty and intense domestic and international competition, it has become difficult to gain a sustainable competitive advantage with internal resources alone. Companies need to acquire and utilize external resources. As a means of doing so, “collaboration” through “global” and “strategic” alliances has been increasing since the late 1980s.
This study provides a quantitative and qualitative analysis of how Japanese pharmaceutical companies are utilizing cross-border strategic alliances and what factors are necessary for their success, by alliance type and corporate strategy type. We find that Japanese pharmaceutical companies, through cross-border strategic alliances, are “co-creating” by bringing knowledge and other internal resources to partners, conducting inter-organizational learning, and aiming to create new innovations, rather than “complementing” or “contributing” internal resources. In addition, “collaboration” through cross-border strategic alliances contributes more to sustainable competitive advantage than “domination” by internal resources across borders.
Successful cross-border strategic alliances require the ability to form and manage alliances appropriately, as well as internal resources and capabilities, or “drug discovery capabilities”, that are attractive for the alliance partner, in addition to trust, understanding of each other’s capabilities, inter-organizational learning, commitment of management, and leveraging of diversity among the partners.
