European Journal of Marketing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate alliance formation competence and attitudes toward brand alliances as antecedents of the firm's propensity to brand ally. It aims to test the hypothesis that the relationship between alliance experience and alliance competence is moderated by the relative quality of the experience, which the authors call valence of alliance experience.

Design/methodology/approach – Research hypotheses were empirically tested with a national sample of senior marketing executives and brand managers.

Findings – The firm's propensity to engage in brand alliances is a function of well-developed strategic alliance capabilities and positive managerial attitudes toward brand alliances. Importantly, when the firm's prior experience in alliances is relatively more positive the relationship between alliance experience and alliance competence is strengthened.

Originality/value – Not all alliance experience is the same. This study, one of the first studies to examine the relative quality of alliance experience, confirms that the relationship between alliance experience and alliance competence is significantly stronger when that experience has been relatively more positive. This study also contributes to the strategic alliance literature by providing empirical evidence for the importance of managers' attitudes toward brand alliances in driving the firm's propensity to brand ally. By choosing brand alliances as the context for the study the paper contributes to the brand alliance literature by investigating the brand alliance phenomenon from the firm's perspective.