Strategic alliances: Strategic alliances are an agreement between two or more companies to work together for a certain period of time in order to achieve certain business objectives, to help each other achieve new technologies or to be able to develop core skills against other competitors. The traditional view on strategic alliances is that they were formed for: - Defensiveness to protect profits - Means to anticipate competition - Competitive and win-lose orientation. alliance that goes beyond the traditional vision and consists of:- Collaboration can create opportunities for success for all participants. - Can create multiple sources of competitive advantage. - A win†win orientation that is based on both collaboration and competition. the following reasons: 1) Technology exchange: Most recent strategic alliances (more than 50%) are formed for technology exchange. this is done to obtain the capabilities and resources necessary to create new technologies or use certain technologies to develop business skills. 2) Global competition: strategic alliances are formed in order to enable partners to develop more of strength and to be able to be more competitive in the global market against a common enemy better than each fighting alone. 3) Industrial Convergence: This means that the company comes together and becomes a single company in order to achieve more success in a certain sector.Strategic risk faced Alliances: Most alliances that work are between two companies from industrialized countries. But even any type of strategic alliance carries certain risks that can arise during this partnership: - Strategic alliances are sometimes used by partners to create competitive advantages over each other, or could even make one of the partners stronger than the other who will manage to take more market share. This will have the effect of creating a new competitor for a partner who could enter into a strategic alliance. To avoid this risk, the partners sign an agreement for example, that after the period of the strategic alliance is over, the partner is not allowed to use this certain technology for at least 3 years. - The inability of the partners to benefit from or carry out a technology transfer between the two partners. This can avoid trying to understand the different cultures of both partners and what might be the best way to ensure that both parties communicate and exchange technologies equally and fairly. Another risk is leadership. Who will control who? Who will make decisions in strategic alliances?