Determinants of Capital Integration among Strategic Alliance Members in the Retail Sector: Evidence from Central and Southeast European Countries

Survival of firms requires continuous search for new and a restructuring of the existing competitive advantages. These can come either from firms’ internal factors or from cooperation with the environment. Cooperation among firms commonly takes place through the formation of strategic alliances. However, such form of cooperation presents only one stage in the integration of business entities. In the long run, strategic alliances can cease to exist or transform into a higher form of association based on capital integration. The objective of this paper is to explore the determinants of capital integration among strategic alliance member firms in retail sectors of several Central and Southeast European countries. Overall, the obtained findings suggest that business entities engage in integration with the aim of reaching hidden knowledge and skills, accessing distribution and supply channels, and developing new products and services. Integration is also Nikola Butigan Managing Director, Pemo Ltd., Dubrovnik, Croatia [email protected] Đuro Benić University of Dubrovnik, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Dubrovnik, Croatia [email protected] CroEconSur Vol. 18 No. 2 December 2016 pp. 77-112 Received: October 7, 2016 Accepted: November 16, 2016 Research Article doi:10.15179/ces.18.2.3