Coordination in business alliances

Coordinate for success in business partnerships, alliances and joint ventures

Coordination relates to boundary definition and refers to the tasks that each party expects the other to perform (Spekman and Mohr 1994).

Mulford and Rogers (1982) define coordination as “the process whereby two or more organisations create and/or use existing decision rules that have been established to deal collectively with their shared task environment.”

Successful alliances require coordinated actions directed at mutual objectives that are consistent across organisations (Narus and Anderson 1987). Pfeffer and Salanik (1978) suggest that stability in an uncertain environment can be achieved via greater coordination.

Without high levels of coordination, processes fail, production stops and planned mutual advantages cannot be achieved (Spekman and Mohr 1994).