The text provides the first full-scale analysis of the burgeoning joint venture phenomenon. In the last two decades, throughout the world, companies have turned to co-ordinating their efforts, resources and expertise to gain access to new technologies and new markets. For the first time, Partnerships for Profit provides the practical guidelines for designing and implementing successful alliances. Building on the experiences, from the late sixties to the present, of numerous American, Asian, and European firms, Lewis prescribes the steps to take and pitfalls to avoid in structuring and managing a strategic alliance, and he highlights the basic ingredients that - regardless of nationality, industry, or purpose - successful alliances require in order to succeed.