Bingu Ingirige, Martin Sexton and David Baldry

1
Competitive Strategies for Achieving Sustainable
Competitive Advantage within Construction
Alliances

• Bingu Ingirige, Martin Sexton and David Baldry
• The Research Institute for the Built and Human
  Environment (BuHu)
• University of Salford, UK

Academic Symposium in Commercial Management, 18th
November 2006
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Outline

• What are alliances
• Alliance aims and objectives
• Research issue
• Case Study results
• Conclusions

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What are alliances?

• Any voluntary initiated cooperative agreement
  between firms that involve exchange, sharing or
  co-development .. of various resources
• Gulati, 1998

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Alliances - aims and objectives

• Share resources and capabilities to mitigate
  commercial risks
• Possible opportunities for collaboration across
  several companies
• Possible link to knowledge creation through
  social interactions across company boundaries
• Commercial opportunity Collaborative
  opportunity

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The Research issue

• Proposition
• Currently there are concerted efforts in
  construction alliances targeted at knowledge
  sharing as a means of short term commercial
  advantage and this emphasis will have a negative
  impact on alliances ability to develop long term
  sustainable competitive advantage.
• Broad research question
• What is the business logic of developing
  knowledge sharing as a core capability in
  construction alliances?

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Methodology

• Case study approach is adopted with an alliance
  level of resolution
• Interviews with Senior and Junior managers.
• Cognitive mapping used to analyse data.

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Case Study Background

• XY Alliance
• An international alliance between a petrol retail
  company and a project management consultancy
  company established in the UK.
• Strategic partnering alliance.
• Consist of approximately 20 people in the
  managerial level.
• Construction work is totally subcontracted and
  involves UK wide construction and maintenance of
  petrol stations.

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Results 1. Alliance formation and common
objectives
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Results - 2
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Results 2. Orientation of the alliance
strategic direction
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Conclusions - 1

• Case study highlights that
• Commercial targets were originally identified as
  driving the alliance long term aims of achieving
  cost effective petrol stations
• However, Targets performed two roles
• SEs undertook many initiatives for knowledge
  sharing with a long term orientation
• PMs did not have adequate depth in their roles

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Conclusions - 2

• Existence of a project based mindset.
• Short term oriented commercial objectives affect
  the development of a core capability of knowledge
  sharing
• Affects transfer of good practice and learning
  from project to project

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Some issues

• Commercial objectives in alliances
• Commercial advantage / Competitive advantage

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competitive Strategies for Achieving Sustainable
Competitive Advantage within Construction
Alliances
THANK YOU

• Bingunath Ingirige, Martin Sexton and David
  Baldry
• The Research Institute for the Built and Human
  Environment (BuHu)
• University of Salford, UK

Academic Symposium in Commercial Management, 18th
November 2006