This paper analyzes contracts (in particular as applied in inter-firm alliances) in highly innovative settings as organizational documents, thereby contributing in understanding the link between the organization of inter-firm relations and an increasingly important dimension of competitiveness,...

This paper inquires into how contracts can regulate the complex and uncertain matters on which strategic alliances get formed. It highlights that contracts can be 'light' without being mistakenly incomplete. It is argued that the contracts constituting and regulating strategic alliances are...

The design of a proper formalization of economic relationships, through contractual and non-contractual documents, and its interaction with informal governance, is a re-emerging issue in organization theory. In fact it is of considerable importance in an era of increasing uncertainty and risk,...