How Risks and Innovativeness Influence the Selection of Partner in NPD Alliances

Most often, if a new product is complex, a unique company doesn't have all the competences or means to achieve alone its development. In this case alliances must be formed to carry on the development project. However, alliances often meet difficulties in achieving their objectives. That is mainly due to difficulties of communication between partners, or to missing skills or means required to go further in the innovative development. To successfully overcome risks of collaboration dysfunction, an alliance must be created between partners able to communicate, presenting a complementarity in the project and being presenting a maximum of characteristics useful for the new project. This paper aims to increase our understanding of how to make alliance with the purpose of exploring the opportunities emerging from a partner innovativeness and risks management. We present an original model of alliance assessment composed by two partners intending to develop a particular innovative project. Based on this model, we propose a decision support system helping choosing firms for an alliance. A case study from the aeronautical industry is presented and results are analysed.