F. Dadashian - Department of Textile Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
S. Shakibfar - Department of Textile Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

Strategic alliances are increasingly gaining popular for Textile companies to achieve fast andeconomical growth in today’s globalization. For small firms, forming cooperative relationships withother small companies as well as large ones is becoming a necessity. Although advances intechnology, communications, and transportation have created many opportunity for growing smallcompanies, it is almost impossible for single, to exploit them on their own. Strategic alliances are animportant source of resources, learning, and thereby competitive advantage. Yet, managers are findingPartner selection is a crucial decision in many organizations, due to varying levels of risk, resourcerequirements, and interaction among the proposed partners. Here, we discuss the implementation of aResource Exchange Model for making strategic alliance. This model describes the knowledge resourceexchange between alliance partners and the possibility of having exchange knowledge between Textilefirms in Isfahan.Also this study aims to identify critical success factors in alliance-making with special considerationgiven to the specific situation of small and medium-sized Textile firms. A comprehensivequestionnaire was used to interview a random sample of key executives in 10 Textile firms in IsfahanIran. This paper reports on the results of that empirical survey, and seeks to propose the type ofstrategic alliances based on the knowledge resources of firms and identify the weights of varioussuccess factors in alliance-making. Effective factors were delivered in firm level and industrial levelcategories. The results show that safety investments, uncertainty, complementary resources, trust,strategic compatibility and appropriate governance mechanisms have an important influence onalliance making for textile companies. Careful strategic planning and good partnership preparation areessential for alliance success.

Strategic alliances, Textile companies, Resource Exchange Model