The European Union is an increasingly important influence on our daily lives with important political, economic and cultural implications. To understand how to bridge the gaps between national cultures and economic systems is an imperative. This book considers in depth from the inside out, one such Franco-German collaboration in the banking sector and sheds light on these imperatives. The practitioner-academic collaboration provides detailed insights into a real cross-border alliance in an accessible manner.

Alliances and Co-Evolution provides alliance managers, consultants and academics with a detailed analysis covering 23 years of the growth and decline of three lifecycles of alliances. This analysis links structural change in the European macro-environment with corporate alliance strategies. It differentiates between strategic alliances and infrastructure alliances with their differing strategic drivers, and proposes a Co-Evolution model to explain, monitor and manage the development of alliances over time.

"Business firms have employed strategic alliances with other firms to effectively manage costs, overcome resource and technology constraints, and enhance competitive position. The principle and practice of strategic alliances can be applied as well for productive and beneficial institutional collaborations in rural financial markets to expand the array of financial products and to scale up access of rural households and micro-businesses to financial services. Strategic alliances comprise a new theme in rural finance. The institutions in the study used strategic alliances to tap new capital resources, manage transaction costs, access banking technology and infrastructure and acquire new skills to provide an expanding array of financial services to wider markets. The authors carefully examine the experiences of selected rural finance institutions and their strategic allies or development partners in Guatemala, the Philippines, Ghana and India to draw out the main findings and share the lessons that may be gainfully applied in other country settings. The study addressed a number of key questions: - What motivated the rural finance institution to structure its alliance or partnership with a bank, commercial or development organization? - How are gains from and costs of alliances and partnerships shared between collaborating institutions? - What are the key elements that make partnerships or alliances successful, and which conditions lead to unproductive ones? - Which financial products and services are best introduced through strategic alliances?"

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, grade: 1,7, University of Applied Sciences Berlin, course: International Business Strategy, language: English, abstract: Over the past 30 years, there were two main vehicles through which companies have globalised: international strategic alliances and cross-border Mergers & Acquisitions (M&As). Both vehicles are instruments used by companies to increase their global reach and competitiveness. In the new economy, alliances and M&As seem to be the normal way of doing business. Although strategic alliances and M&As are not a recent phenomena, their pace of growth and the variety of their forms has been increasing. When dealing with strategic alliances and M&As, four main questions arise: What are the drivers of strategic alliances and M&As? Which sources of success and failure offer these two growth vehicles? Are there specific determinants that are decisive in the process of establishing a strategic alliance or doing a merger or acquisition? And why do so many M&A fail? To answer these questions chapter 1 deals with the rationale for strategic alliances and M&As by outlining key points of the past development. Chapter two clarifies the different types of international alliances and their advantages and disadvantages. It also describes success criteria being important for forming strategic alliances by clarifying the major steps in analysing strategic alliances. To combine theory and praxis, chapter three ends with a short case study about the Renault-Nissan Alliance stating the key success factors. The chapter three is about cross-border M&As by focussing on their the two phases – the pre-acquisition phase and the post-acquisition phase. It describes how companies should decide, give value and negotiate the deal and underlines important managerial processes involved in the integration of the merged company. By analysing the reasons for M&A failures, this chapter underlines the importance of integration for the M&A deal. A short case study of an important acquisition in the banking sector completes chapter 3. Finally chapter 4 summarises the main results.

Business firms have employed strategic alliances with other firms to effectively manage costs, overcome resource and technology constraints, and enhance competitive position. The principle and practice of strategic alliances can be applied as well for productive and beneficial institutional collaborations in rural financial markets to expand the array of financial products and to scale up access of rural households and micro-businesses to financial services. Strategic alliances comprise a new theme in rural finance. The institutions in the study used strategic alliances to tap new capital resources, manage transaction costs, access banking technology and infrastructure and acquire new skills to provide an expanding array of financial services to wider markets. The authors carefully examine the experiences of selected rural finance institutions and their strategic allies or development partners in Guatemala, the Philippines, Ghana and India to draw out the main findings and share the lessons that may be gainfully applied in other country settings.

This text focuses on the international banking revolution of the 1960s and provides a fresh historical perspective on the foundations of the subsequent financial globalization. The contributors address four main issues: the revival of London as a world financial centre; the emergence of Euro-banking as a new frontier of growth for credit institutions; the competitive challenge brought home by American banks to their European counterparts; and the strategic response by British and Continental banks.