When two companies band together to form an alliance, and sit down to negotiate the contract, what exactly determines the contract's content? And why are some contracts so much more complex than others? The paper "Strategic Alliance Contracts: Dimensions and Determinants of Contractual Complexity" examines the complexity of contractual provisions. It determines the importance of several factors that influence the design of collaborative agreements: the assets that each company brings into the relationship, the duration of the alliance, prior ties and trust.

International logistics partnerships are a key class of strategic alliance, but until now little has been known about their performance. The paper "Measuring the Performance of Intenational Logistics Outsourcing Partnerships: A Dyadic Perspective Analysis" introduces, for the first time, a reliable methodology to measure the performance of a partnership between a logistics provider and its customer. Using data from 75 top European logistics companies and their clients, authors Joan Jané of Hewlett-Packard and Professors Alejandro Lago and África Ariño of IESE explain how to measure whether or not both sides are satisfied and have met their strategic goals.