Abstract

Successful business alliances are a critical strategic component in many industries especially Auto Industry, but
too many strategic alliances fail to meet their partners’ objectives. Many failures result from ill-conceived overall
alliance strategies and firm partner selection. In particular, the well-informed and strategically driven selection of
alliance partners is a core element in building successful alliances.
The decision-making process associated with selecting an alliance partner is complex and challenging. When
managers have access to relevant information and are not under time constraints, they can use a rational,
analytical process to evaluate strategic fit among alternatives. Since there was insufficient attention to partner
selection in literature review of Auto industry, and there is a strong need for auto firms in this area, the current
work aims to address this gap in Auto industry, using multi objective decision making method and then a case
study and quantitative evidence from Mazda Company (Iran) are provided.

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