The rise of inter-firm alliances as a prominent organizational form in the past two decades has generated intense and sustained interest, particularly from academics studying the properties of alliances as knowledge acquisition mechanisms. Early taxonomic efforts have gradually given way to more theory-driven analyses and significant progress has been made in understanding inter-firm arrangements in general, and knowledge-sharing alliances in particular. This progress has in large part been driven by the development and application of transaction cost economics (TCE), often in combination with ideas drawn from the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm.

This lecture highlights significant milestones in previous research on knowledge sharing alliances to date, and then explores several areas at the leading edge of alliance research,  identifying opportunities for future researchers.