Innovation alliances: a case study of the Norwegian financial services industry

Abstract

The objective of this master thesis is to study the connection between strategic alliances and innovation. We conducted an explorative case study of alliance formations in the Norwegian financial industry from 2014 to 2017. This study involved 22 semi-structured interviews and numerous secondary data sources, as well as academic literature on alliances and innovation. Analysis of our data reaped an understanding for how and why firms employed alliances to innovate for mobile payment platforms, blockchain technology, and other highly uncertain outcomes. To conclude our empirical findings, we present a matrix to inform the decisionmaking of firms establishing alliances. We propose that the structure of an innovation alliance will vary according to the firm’s need for control and speed of the innovation outcome. We also present a conceptual model of interorganisational innovation to illustrate the ways in which firms can employ alliances for different innovation purposes. Our findings contradict the “disrupt or be disrupted” mentality often encountered in organisational innovation. We instead propose a holistic view of innovation alliances as a medium for achieving balance between exploration and exploitation. The thesis concludes by discussing the implications our findings may have for managers and suggesting possibilities for further research.