Value Creation in Alliance Portfolios: The Benefits and Costs of Network Resource Interdependencies

We draw on the resource-based view of the firm and the alliance benefits and costs literature to advance a model of value creation in firms that access network resources through multiple simultaneous strategic alliances with different partners. Our model suggests that value creation on the alliance portfolio level is a function of the benefits created through synergistic combinations of network resources accessed through alliances with different partners and of the costs generated by the substitutability of resource combinations between the focal firm and its alliance partners. We specify the conditions under which firms can leverage their network resources accessed from alliances with different partners to create benefits above and beyond the benefits they create at the level of any individual alliance. We conclude that the value creating potential of network resources should not only be evaluated on the basis of each individual alliance but also from an alliance portfolio perspective.