Developing and managing collaborative know-how in firms and strategic alliances

Collaborative know-how includes the knowledge about alliances that exists within organizations and the routines used to apply that knowledge to alliance-related activities. Developing collaborative know-how is therefore a critical element in the development of collaborative capabilities. However, the specific mechanisms with which collaborative know-how can be developed and managed recquire more exploration. In particular, there is a need for better understanding or the intricate interplay or underlying mechanisms that lead to the development and successful deployment or collaborative knowhow within firms and alliance relationships. This chapter explores these relationships by advancing a process-based, multilevel conceptual research model that traces the individual and organizational-level antecedents of collaborative capability and links them to knowledge sharing and, ultimately, collaborative know-how in and between firms.