MUTUALLY ASSURED ALLIANCES.
Ranjay Gulati, Nitin Nohria · Academy of Management Proceedings · 1992
In many contemporary alliances partners can obtain higher payoffs by cooperating with each other than by behaving opportunistically. These reciprocally interdependent alliances then, are better viewed as mutual assurance games than as prisoner's dilemmas. The key to ensuring cooperation in a mutually assured alliance lies in systematically managing both the alliance and the perceptions of its partners. This paper offers specific guidelines for managing such alliances.