This article examines the application of co-evolutionary theory to the way in which firms form, perform, compete and change within alliance relationships over the period of the industry life cycle. This extends the work of Volberda and Lewin who extensively critiqued the use of single-theme explanations for explaining the adaption and selection of firms. Delineating the aspects of change (adaptation) and selection, and using case material from different stages of the Industry life cycle, we propose that co-evolution is a better explanator of strategic alliance and industry dynamics at early and late stages of the cycle, whilst evolution and survival of the fittest is more useful in the middle stages.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	co-evolution, strategic alliances, strategy, models
Research Division:	Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services
Research Group:	Business and Management
Research Field:	Organisational Behaviour
Objective Division:	Economic Framework
Objective Group:	Management and Productivity
Objective Field:	Management
UTAS Author:	Hynes, N (Dr Niki Hynes)
ID Code:	124089
Year Published:	2012
Web of Science® Times Cited:	8
Deposited By:	TSBE
Deposited On:	2018-02-08
Last Modified:	2018-04-05
Downloads:	0