Negotiating Alliances in Emerging Markets - Do Partners' Contributions Matter?

This article explores a “tool” that may be used for the informal phase of negotiations of alliances in emerging markets. Four different partner perspectives of the partners of an alliance are analyzed: how the foreign investor views his own contributions to the venture, how the foreign investor views the local partner’s contributions, how the local partner views his own contributions, and how the local partner views the contributions of the proposed foreign investor. Three categories of differences in perception are identified. These four perspectives and three categories are discussed using the appropriate research findings from relevant literature. The article discusses the implications for business negotiations of the identified perceptual conflicts for international business practitioners, researchers, and policy makers.