Diploma Thesis from the year 2001 in the subject Business economics - Miscellaneous, grade: 1, AKAD University of Applied Sciences Stuttgart, language: English, abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to give a review about the broad topic of Strategic Alliances namely in a way understandable to non-management experts. After reading this thesis the reader should be able to answer questions such as - what are Strategic Alliances, - should a company operate through Strategic Alliances or should other strategies be considered, - what types of Strategic Alliances do exist, - how to identify the strategic and operational fit, - what impact company culture can have on an alliance, - evaluate and assess capabilities, - how to negotiate and select partners, - what impact country culture can have on alliances, - how to implement and make the alliance work. Deliberately, this thesis is kept very general, and the relevance to the construction industry is outlined at the end of the parts 1, 2 and 9 respectively. Furthermore the objective is to be practice-oriented rather than to wander in theoretical realms. Just like an estimate this thesis covers the major items and detailed samples are only provided in special cases to underline some very important coherences and to make the 'theory' more understandable. Samples and further information can be found in the respective appendices. Hence, the purpose of this thesis is not an enumeration of Strategic Alliance samples, as every Strategic Alliance highly depends on particular circumstances. However, the samples and further information covered by the appendices will facilitate the general understanding of some issues.