Access to resources: partners in a strategic alliance can help each other by giving access to resources, (personnel, finances, technology) which enable the partner to produce its products in a higher quality or more cost efficient way. Access to target markets: sometimes, collaboration with a local partner is the only way to enter a specific market. Especially developing countries want to avoid that their resources are exploited, which makes it hard for foreign companies to enter these markets alone. Economies of scale: when companies pool their resources and enable each other to access manufacturing capabilities, economies of scale can be achieved. Cooperating with appropriate strategies also allows smaller enterprises to work together and to compete against large competitors. regulatory requirements: When entering a foreign country, organisations sometimes face regulation constraints which can be reduced by forming a strategic alliance with a host-country organization. Further advantages of strategic alliances Access to new technology, intellectual property rights Create critical mass, common standards, new businesses Diversification Improve agility, R&D, material flow, speed to market Reduce administrative costs, R&D costs, and cycle time Allowing each partner to concentrate on their competitive advantage Learning from partners and developing competencies that may be more widely exploited elsewhere To reduce political risk while entering into a new market An alliance plan will provide the opportunity to manage and achieve defined results from a corporate ecosystems Disadvantages Disadvantages of strategic alliances include: Sharing: In a strategic alliance the partners must share resources and profits and often skills and know-how. This can be critical if business secrets are included in this knowledge. Agreements can protect these secrets but the partner might not be willing to stick to such an agreement. Creating a competitor: The partner in a strategic alliance might become a competitor one day, if it profited enough from the alliance and grew enough to end the partnership and then is able to operate on its own in the same market segment. Opportunity costs: Focusing and committing is necessary to run a Strategic Alliance successfully but might discourage from taking other opportunities, which might be beneficial as well. Uneven alliances: When the decision powers are distributed unevenly, the weaker partner might be forced to act according to the will of the more powerful partner(s), even if he or she is actually not willing to do so. Foreign confiscation: If a company is engaged in a foreign country, there