The Performance Of Asymmetric Alliances – The Case Of French SMEs In The Aircraft Industry

The purpose of this paper is to explore and discuss empirically about the effects of asymmetries between Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Multinational Corporations (MNCs) on the performance of these companies in an alliance. We address both direct effects and indirect ones related to trust from the perspective of ten French SMEs operating in the aircraft manufacturing industry. Our empirical results suggest that asymmetries between partners have different direct and indirect effects on performance. These effects depend both on the type of asymmetry and the specific dimension of performance under consideration. We observe significant positive direct and indirect effects of resource complementarities on the overall performance of the alliance. In addition, we find that there is a direct and significant negative influence on relational performance of differences in size and organizational culture.