The purpose of this paper is to explore empirically the effects of size asymmetry between\nSmall and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Multinational Corporations (MNCs) on the\nperformance of these companies in an alliance. We analyze the effects of this asymmetry on\nalliance performance, both direct effects and indirect ones related to trust from the\nperspective of ten French SMEs operating in the aircraft manufacturing industry. The\nprevious findings suggest a negative relationship between size asymmetry and\nperformance. Our empirical results reveal that size asymmetry between partners has\ndifferent direct and indirect effects on performance. These effects depend on the specific\ndimension of performance under consideration. We observe for example that size\nasymmetry has no negative direct and indirect effects on financial performance and\norganizational learning of the SME. In addition, we find that there is a direct and significant\nnegative influence of size asymmetry on relational performance.
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