Constrained choices in alliance formations: Cupids and organizational marriages
研究了“媒人联盟”中目标组织在第三方推动下的受限战略选择，通过案例和访谈数据发现，无历史联盟关系的代表在谈判中信任度下降，但协议仍能达成。
This article develops a constrained choice model of strategic decision-making for `cupid' alliances. Unlike voluntary alliances, cupid alliances are forged between `target' organizations at the behest of a third `cupid' organization that stands to benefit from creation of the alliance. Three key alliance decisions — whether to partner, with whom, and governance — are substantially curtailed by the cupid's requirements, producing a severely constrained set of strategic decisions. The conceptual model is supplemented with a case study which relies on qualitative interviews, observations and communication network data collected from principals negotiating a cupid alliance. A finding which may be unique to cupid alliances was the decline in trust over the course of the negotiation between those representatives whose organizations had no past alliance relationships. This finding is especially interesting given the fact that despite the decreased propensity for representatives to trust, an agreement was still reached.