The book is for executive MBAs and managers, mostly senior executives, who are looking to understand how they can derive competitive advantage from their alliance portfolios. In addition to a traditional segment of executives operating companies in the developed economies, a new segment includes executives from multinational companies from the emerging markets (emerging multinationals) that only recently have started to build their global alliance networks. Each chapter in the book provides examples and illustrations from around the world of different types of alliance network together with tools which should help executives to visualize the structure of their existing alliance portfolios. Chapters take the manager or executive student through the following questions: How can executives help their companies achieve competitive advantage by understanding the structure and composition of their alliance portfolios?What types of alliance portfolios improve organizations" ability to execute their strategies?What types of alliance portfolios can help companies to improve their innovativeness?Which partners are the key to the firm"s network success?How can organizations use networks to influence industry trends and actions - e.g., regulations and trade association initiatives?What types of network positions do organizations tend to create?How can organizations use their networks to advance their reputations in the industry?How can organizations shape alliance portfolios to best suit their strategies?