A business alliance is an agreement between businesses, usually motivated by cost reduction and improved service for the customer. Alliances are often bounded by a single agreement with equitable risk and opportunity share for all parties involved and are typically managed by an integrated project team. An example of this is code sharing

Code sharing

A codeshare agreement, sometimes simply codeshare, is an aviation business arrangement where two or more airlines share the same flight. A seat can be purchased on one airline but is actually operated by a cooperating airline under a different flight number or code...

 in airline alliance

Airline alliance

An airline alliance is an agreement between two or more airlines to cooperate on a substantial level. The three largest passenger alliances are the Star Alliance, SkyTeam and Oneworld. Alliances also form between cargo airlines, such as that of WOW Alliance, SkyTeam Cargo and ANA/UPS Alliance...

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There are five basic categories or types of alliances:

• Sales alliance
• Solution-specific alliance
• Geographic-specific alliance
• Investment alliance
• Joint venture alliance

In many cases, alliances between companies can involve two or more categories or types of alliances. A sales alliance occurs when two companies agree to go to market together to sell complementary products and services. A solution-specific alliance occurs when two companies agree to jointly develop and sell a specific marketplace solution. A geographic-specific alliance is developed when two companies agree to jointly market or co-brand their products and services in a specific geographic region. An investment alliance occurs when two companies agree to join their funds for mutual investment. A joint venture

Joint venture

A joint venture is a business agreement in which parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity. They exercise control over the enterprise and consequently share revenues, expenses and assets...

is an alliance that occurs when two or more companies agree to undertake economic activity together.