Motivations and criteria for partner selection in innovation alliance — A comparison between companies from Germany and China

Partner selection is of great importance for the viability of innovation alliance. In this paper, based on the scenario that the emphasis of partner selection would vary according to different motivations, different clusters of motivations are worked out and also a criterion system is set up. Based on this, relationships between motivations and selection criteria are clearly identified, which aims to shed some light on the theory of partner selection. A survey based on the experience of companies was further conducted for the analysis. In the end, the criterion system of this work was confirmed to hold high reliable properties and the hypotheses regarding the inner dependence between motivations and the focus of selection criteria could also been proved. With the survey, it was also possible to reveal motivation differences between companies from Germany and China. Furthermore suggestions are given out regarding their criterion focus.