Drivers and Barriers of Partner Switch in Interfirm Alliances

Typically literature on interfirm alliances assumes that when alliances terminate they failed. Even though this is often the case, recent research in this field shows that firms also withdraw from alliances for strategic reasons. One reason might be that the firms found options with higher match quality than the current partner, and thus switch their alliance partner. This paper investigates the drivers and barriers of partner switch in interorganizational relationships. We build on prior research on partner switch behavior and extend it in several ways by literature on alliance formation, termination and dynamics. The main contribution of our paper compared to previous work in that field is a more comprehensive conceptual model of antecedents to partner switch that particularly highlights the importance of switching barriers.