Renault-Nissan as a Project of Projects: A Relational Approach to Strategic Alliances

The study of strategic alliances has traditionally focused on their initial purpose and examined the complementarities in assets and competences that prompt two firms with aligned objectives to collaborate. More recently, research has shifted toward understanding the dynamic nature of these alliances. In alignment with Dyer and his colleagues (1998; 2018), this article seeks to investigate the Renault-Nissan strategic alliance as a relationship conceptualized as a project of projects. To achieve this, this study draws on the literature on alliances, relationships, and projects. Through the analysis of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, the study establishes that this collaboration is a dynamic, multilevel relationship that articulates an unfinished project (‘unfinished business’; Duck, 1990) and finished projects and that presents itself as a project of projects. Within this dynamic framework, the future takes precedence over the past (questioning the importance of relational capital). By examining the Renault-Nissan case through the lens of relational dynamics as a project of projects, this article makes thoughtful contributions to the theories of alliances, projects, and relationships.