STRATEGIC ALLIANCES BETWEEN FIRMS – A MODEL OF COMPETITIVE STRATEGY IN FOOD INDUSTRY

Abstract

A statistical analysis on food engineering companies from the North Eastern of Romania was made in order to emphasize the fact that alliances are clear examples for companies to achieve more important and stronger market presence. Today, alliances are a fact of life for business, a substantial part of current operations as well as a future strategy. Among other existing solutions, creating strategic alliances (through various types of cooperation, collaboration and partnership) is a solution for business firms to get competitive advantages. Strategic alliances have become increasingly more and more important in the global economy and nowadays  they are a kind of competitive weapon for survival in the business world. Even if there have been made many alliances between business organizations, a "magic formula" for creating them has not been found yet, because each alliance has its own particularities and its specificity. Since the foreign literature and Romanian literature on strategic alliances, clusters, networking and other forms of cooperation / collaboration between firms are extremely broad, we shall present a synthesis and give a definition of strategic alliances, by focusing on the key reasons for creating strategic alliances.