STRATEGIC ALLIANCES IN NEW VENTURES: DOES ALLIANCE STRUCTURE FOLLOW THEORY? Joette M. Wisnieski Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Mike Dowling Universitataet Regensburg ABSTRACT Initial public offerings of 189 firms issued between the years 1986 and 1994 were studied to determine the use of strategic alliances by high technology new ventures. Three theories, Resource Dependency, Transaction Cost and Strategic Choice suggest both why firms enter the alliances and how to structure the strategic alliance. Content analysis was performed on the IPOs for several variables including new venture motivation for the alliance and the governance structure of the alliance. Predictive discriminant analysis was used to determine if indeed these three theories were useful in predicting alliance formation.