The activities of research and development are caracterized by ascendent levels of complexity. Companies that consider technological resources as their source of competitive advantage demand proportional levels of competences that cannot be always developed on their internal structure. Considering a situation which brings together objectives, structures, processes and individuals, these relations of cooperation bring relevant challenges of administration to executives and to organizational and strategical studies. This research has the purpose of identifying mechanisms of control in strategical alliances oriented to technological development activities. A theorical reference about strategical alliances, bringing the focus to instruments of coordination of formal and informal control in cooperated activities. The methodology has adopted the strategy of multiple case study, by which three alliances of the metal-mechanic sector have been analyzed. The study adopts a model that considers the processual dimension of interorganizational relations in order to identify the mechanisms of control in each stage of the relationship. The study intends to identify elements that influence the determination of these mechanisms of control so that may be possible to contribute with future studies about the coordination of strategical alliances.
strategical technological alliances; mechanisms of control; stages of relationship
