Developing international strategic alliances between exporters and importers: The case of Australian exporters

The objective of this paper is to develop and test a model of the determinants of exporters' intention to form strategic alliances with their foreign exchange partners. Specifically, exporters' economic ethnocentrism, cultural distance and decision making uncertainty are hypothesized as factors affecting opportunism, which in turn affects relational exchange. Relational exchange, exporting performance and the duration of the business relationship are also hypothesized as factors affecting exporters' intentions to form international strategic alliances. Survey results of Australian firms exporting to Korea generally support the proposed model. The managerial implications are discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.