After completing the course successfully, students will be able to:

• analyse the nature of competition and cooperation among firms;
• use various theoretical perspectives in the analysis and evaluation of alliance designs and processes in a competitive environment;
• distinguish various functions, forms of strategic alliances, supply networks and relate these to the corporate strategy;
• distinguish different phases of in the process of alliance management and its alignment to the firm's strategic objectives
• present and discuss in interactive student seminars the practices and process of alliance management from a cooperative and a competitive strategy perspective;
• apply theory and concepts (literature, lectures) critically to cases (including a guest lecture) and when describing and analysing the practice of strategic cooperation and alliance management.

Alliances and networks are becoming an increasingly important means for organizations to create value and to capture value. However this creates a paradox. On the one hand organisations are dependent on other organisations to create value and at the same time they compete with those same organisations for value capture. This balancing act and how it may be managed is the central theme of this course: Strategic alliance and network management.

The study of this balancing act of organizations between competition and cooperation provides insight into a fundamental aspect of organization's strategic behaviour regarding the management of their relationships, for example the strategies to deploy in the platform economy. Furthermore, this seminar and its activities may inspire you to pursue an interesting line of work in business, consultancy and/or research.