Alliance strategies: a network approach, the case of the software sector.

Summary The development of alliances raises the question of the underlying logic of alliance strategies and how to conduct them. Starting from the limits of the theories of the firm, we have tried in this research to bring elements of response by developing a systemic analysis of these strategies. These strategies appear to be a means for firms to act in complexity by inserting themselves into networks to serve their innovation policies. The structure of the networks of insertion thus seems to determine the advantages drawn by the firms from their alliance strategies. The study carried out with leading software companies has made it possible to support this thesis and to suggest some structural rules for the formulation of alliance strategies.