Transnational strategic alliances in the telecommunications industry

The global marketplace in the 1990s demands that multinational companies have access to an increasingly sophisticated, seamless communications network. Transnational strategic alliances (TSAs) are a way of meeting these needs in the context of limited available resources. The current map of TSAs in telecom industry is dominated by five groups of players; WorldPartners, Concert, Global One, Unisource, and C&W. Firms select the type of alliance depending on their relative positions with respect to size, profitability, capital structure, and R&D capability. The critical issues in TSAs are trade reciprocity, legal environment, and financing. Although competition is the flip side of the coin in strategic alliances, managing this duality effectively is a key to the success of the alliances.