We are trying to analyse how the search and selection of partners (in international strategic alliances) influence on the development of the agreement. More specifically, we want to assess whether firms consider size and culture (both national and firm culture) as variables when selecting a partner, and what is the role of interfirm trust in the evolution of the companies' relation. For doing so, we are working on a questionnaire and would like to send it to companies with international agreements. Surprisingly, all public institutions we have asked for a database say that is a confidential information and they can't inform us which firms cooperate internationally.
Thomson Financial Securities data collects (or collected) data on that.
There is an (old) paper in OECD series Kang, N. and K. Sakai (2000), “International Strategic Alliances: Their Role in Industrial Globalisation”, OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers, 2000/05, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/613723204010
that used that information.
I do not know if Thomson continues collecting this information nor whether it is available for the public.
Hope to have been useful
Melissa schilling in her book strategic management of technological innovation has a section related to the formulation of an innovation strategy, in that section you can find information about collaboration strategies in many sectors in real cases.
Dear Drs Zartha and Merino,
thanks a lot for your answers. We managed to finish our research some months ago. Finally, we found data from three sources: The first source was Eureka, an intergovernmental network that supports market-oriented R&D and innovation projects across all technological sectors in 41 countries. Browsing the Eureka Projects Database and limiting the search to firms with a Spanish partner yielded 208 organizations. The second source was the Foreign Trade department at the Valencian Chamber of Commerce, which collaborated by providing a list of 156 firms. The third source was the Orbis Database, a source of news about Spanish firms involved in international joint ventures. This source yielded data on 25 firms.
So, thanks a lot for your answers and hopefully our experience might help any other researchers with their aims.