Making decisions on enterprise‐wide strategic alignment in multinational alliances

The article concerns the decision‐making process involved in determining the strategic need and use of multinational alliances for a specific company. In theory the process is a linear one moving from the situation analysis (company and competitive market) through evaluation of the impact of external and internal situation factors on the alliance entry choice. In practice, however, the process is an emerging one, as is shown in the company experiences described in this paper. In this sense, this study concerns the application of planning decision theory to actual company decision‐making practices.