TRENDS AND PATTERNS IN STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGY PARTNERING SINCE THE EARLY SEVENTIES

This paper analyses some basic trends and patterns in inter-firm strat egic technology partnering during the past two and a half decades. The description of growth patterns in strategic technology partnering rev eals that this phenomenon has become increasingly popular during the e ighties and the early nineties. Joint ventures, once the most prominen t form of inter-firm partnering, have, to a very large degree, been re placed by a wide variety of contractual agreements. International patt erns of partnering are discussed for the Triad (USA, Europe, Japan) in terms of changes in the distribution of domestic and cross-border all iances.