The Impact of Strategic Alliances on Achieving Sustainable Competitive Advantage: A Study on Some Hotels in Egypt

Abstract

The study contributes to determining strategic alliances barriers, criteria for the selection of Partners, identifying the motives that encourage hotels forming strategic alliances to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. The study also and examine the effect of strategic alliances on sustainable competitive advantage. the study concentrated on a number of four and five-star hotels in great Cairo (Cairo and Giza). A sum of 300 forms was distributed to managers from (50 hotels and 10 travel agents); among them only (71%) were valid. The results indicated that managers were satisfied with the strategic alliance's importance, Criteria of Partners Selection and motives of Strategic Alliances were positively affected on Strategic Alliance Importance, Barriers of Strategic Alliances were negatively affected on Strategic Alliance Importance. Strategic Alliance Importance was positively affected on Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA). Introduction Global competition has paved the way for firms to develop strategic alliances not only at a national level but also at the international level. Partner selection has possibly become the major step in creating a successful alliance and consequently, the competitive position of the firm. businesses with different cultures, resources, and strengths have different criteria when selecting strategic alliance partners. Moreover, firms in the process of forming an alliance, mainly search for partners having skilled resources that may add a distinctive set of capabilities to compete in the rapidly changing business environment (Chand and Katou, 2012).