Strategic alliances have generally been used to refer to relationships that allow an organization to access the strengths and capabilities of other organizations, with the organization often focused on being the firm. The strategy behind such an alliance is for each firm in the alliance to draw on the core competencies of the other firm(s) with the goal of facilitating the growth and development of each member.

Strategic alliances have long been studied from several perspectives, including the way in which the alliance is brought about, alternative forms of relationships that form the structure of the alliance, efficiency gains from the alliance, and the life cycle of the alliance. The strategic alliances that are now being observed are those that involve partners other than firms. In many advanced nations, strategic alliances are subsidized by the public sector in the belief that they advance economic growth. One such form of this public/private partnership involves universities as the public partner; another form involves a government agency as the public partner; and a third form involves both.

This book transcends the traditional approach to a strategic alliance. As such, this collection might represent the locus of observational points that make up a new frontier, re-defining the scope of research that falls under the rubric of 'strategic alliances'. This book was originally published as a special issue of Economics of Innovation and New Technology.