Strategic Alliances and Intercultural Organizational Change: The Renault-Nissan Case

Abstract : This case study focuses on a strategic alliance formed between the French company Renault and the Japanese company Nissan. This bilateral agreement associates actors and teams from two different national and corporate cultures. Created in 1999, the Renault–Nissan alliance has become the most productive and longest-lasting intercultural alliance among major car manufacturers. The success of Renault Nissan can be seen as a positive exception and a role model for the future in the field of international cooperations such as alliances. The objective of the case-study is to explain the manifold organizational development measures and solutions that have been adopted to overcome and integrate national and corporate cultural differences to develop a new organization in an interculturally synergetic way.