Impact of Alliances on Technological Performance of Local Companies in Emerging Markets: Case of Tunisian Firms

The evolution of co-operations between firms has permitted a plentiful literature around the conception of the firm and its frontiers and has placed the specificity of competencies and innovation in the heart of the firm analysis. The evolution of the firm is observed according to the technological opportunities and the quality of its own competencies. In this context, the international joint ventures (IJV), between firms belonging to different levels of development, can be considered as a dynamic channel for acquisition new knowledge and improvement of existent competencies. The contractual relation is a challenge for the developing partner to reach a platform of knowledge and improve its competencies. However, the transfer inherent from IJV is not systematic. It is conditioned by the existence of prior core knowledge that could influence the success and the quality of the transfer. Considering this, we propose to measure the performance of the transfer inherent from international joint ventures on the recipient partners in the case of Tunisian firms. For that purpose we based the analysis on responses to a questionnaire sent to the managers in the different sectors in year 2005 and including two types of firms, those being engaged in an IJV and those not. We describe in the first section, the sample selection and the methodology of the analysis. Then we measure the effects of the IJV that are appreciated at two levels: the level of the perception of the managers and the level of the type of supports made by the foreign parent. Empirically we obtain five main effects declined in the evolution of knowledge and learning, the evolution of the tangible asset, the improvement of organizational capacities, the development of the technical learning and finally the tangible capacities. In the section 2, we test the potential absorptive capacity (PACAP), which could have an influence in terms of improving the performance effects of the IJV. The results show a correlation between the considered dimensions of the potential ACAP- the evolution of the R&D expenditure, the R&D unit and the qualifications- and the evolution of knowledge and learning. In section 3, we measure, the influence of the profiles characteristics of the firms, on moderating the IJV’ effects. The results are significant only on “the evolution of the knowledge and learning”. We extend the analysis by testing the influence of each control parameter on improving the previous results. We operate the same analysis by measuring the influence of each profile characteristic separately. We note the significant results for the parameter: Service sector. The other profile characteristics have not an exclusive and direct influence on the improvement of the alliance performance. Finally, we conclude and we underline the limits of this study.