International Banking Strategic Alliances

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.

'We know that many alliances between companies fail. We have far less understanding of how and why this happens. International Banking Strategic Alliances makes a significant contribution to such understanding. It provides a detailed account of the alliance between the Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) and the Dresdner Bank, which was signed in October 1996 and dissolved by mutual agreement six years later in 2002. In Part I of the book, the authors provide a longitudinal account of the alliance's lifecycle. This is an unusually vivid and authentic inside story, which offers many insights into the processes and pathways of an alliance. Part II focuses on the issues that the BNP-Dresdner alliance raises for the banking industry.

The authors are careful to place their account into its context, and this considerably enriches their contribution to both theory and practice. The more immediate context is that of the two partner's strategic intentions for their alliance and their respective cultures that had to be accommodated in their collaborative arrangements. The wider context is the European banking sector and its political economy. In giving both micro and macro contexts due weight, the authors are able to demonstrate how an alliance evolves both in terms of its internal dynamics as well as in relation to external changes.

A rich case study always offers great potential for theory and practice, but that potential has to be realized through skilled and sensitive analysis. It is a credit to the authors of this book that they have achieved this. Those working in banking, having responsibility for the management of alliances, or teaching on the subject, will all benefit greatly from reading this important new book.' - Professor John Child, University of Birmingham

'In the field of alliances and interfirm cooperation there is much theorizing, but fewer practical studies covering a particular industry or sector. International Banking and Strategic Alliances is a comprehensive look at the motivations, rationales and management of bank alliances across national borders. This book should be of immense interest to bankers and academics. The several themes, as well as a copy of a complete agreement between BNP and Dresdner, are replete with insights on the rationales for alliances (such as efficiency, co-marketing, expanded territorial coverage and product mix), on antitrust issues, on the difficulties in managing such partnerships over time and in general, on how to assess the pros and cons of such deals. The book also alludes, in passing, to the vexing question of how to measure success and goal achievement in such alliances. To the banker and manager, the book provides a large number of practical insights. To the scholar, it shows how theory is applied.' - Professor Farok J. Contractor, Rutgers University, USA

'The authors are to be congratulated on their considerable success in tackling a difficult subject in an entertaining and readable fashion, and in having provoked a number of very interesting questions in the mind of the reader regarding the chances and conditions for success of cross-border banking alliances in Europe.' - Dr. David Faulkner, Christ Church College and Said Business School, Oxford University

JÖRG ITSCHERT read Political Studies and Sociology at the University of Heidelberg. After a career in Law, he joined a major German bank, rising to a senior level. Postgraduate studies were at the University of Nancy in European Studies. His particular interest is in the boundaries between social anthropology, political science and comparative law.

REHAN UL-HAQ lectures in Strategic Management at The Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham. Research active in the strategic alliances and strategy areas, he is an associate member of the faculty at Henley Management College and consults for the United Nations Group. His growing interest is in the co-evolution of alliances.