Alliances as multilevel entities. Studies should explore the dynamics between different levels of analysis (Faems et al. 2008), including strategic, tactical and operational, while focusing on varied, alliance-related phenomena: How do communication, trust and contracting within and between different levels of partner organizations enable or hinder collaborative activities across partners? How do changes at different levels within partner organizations, as well as within the alliance, affect one another? What are the differences and tensions in alliance management between alliances initiated at operational or strategic levels? In addition, future research may explore the interrelatedness between individual, team, alliance and network levels of analysis (Le Roy and Fernandez 2015; Lipparini et al.

2014) and focus on questions such as: How do individual behaviours affect team functioning and alliance progress, and vice versa? Under what conditions are which coordination mechanisms effective to align interests across team- and alliance-levels of analysis? To what extent do different alliance network structures enable or inhibit alliance formation, management and performance, and vice versa?