The purpose of this paper is to discuss the phenomenon of strategic alliances through a sociological perspective as a counterpoint to prevailing economic view, which privileges a conception of rational actor in a utilitarian and contractual basis. The case study investigates the process of constitution of a strategic alliance in the hotel industry in Brazil. Interviews and documentary data were analyzed qualitatively through traditional content analysis and oral history technique. The results revealed relevant emergent sociological aspects concerning strategic alliances which formed the basis for the establishment of four analytical propositions: 1. the process of constituting strategic alliances is influenced by the activity of different interested actors distributed in the political arena, whose actions are guided not only by utilitarian expectations, but also symbolic; 2. the effort of incumbent actors to justify and legitimize a project of interorganizational cooperation and to mobilize other actors in favor of ideas and interests that are consistent with this project influences the process of constituting strategic alliances; 3. principles, categories and shared understandings of interorganizational cooperation, built on the interaction of the constituent actors with external agents, determine the formal and relational arrangements in the process of constituting strategic alliances; 4. the constitution of strategic alliances depends on how organizational actors interpret their membership as desirable or obligatory in a given social context. We conclude in favor to a complementary approach between economic perspective and sociological view in strategic alliance studies, which recognize the social embeddedness of the economic actors as well as the relevance of the institutional dimension of organizational environment. In doing so, we believe the economic approach will benefit from a more complex and comprehensive understanding of strategic alliances.
Strategic alliances; Sociological analysis; Cooperation; Economic perspective; Hotel industry