Resource dependency theory approaches commercial relationships by conceptualizing them as a strategic response by firms to conditions of uncertainty (Pfeffer and Salanick 1978). Firms have been conceptualized as bundles of competencies, such as tacit knowledge, skill etc., and this framework has been extended to the study of inter-organizational relationships. Through cooperation, partners can exchange core competencies and thereby avoid the rick of tackling novel products or markets alone. In the discussion on strategic relationships between organizations, the ability of member organizations to exchange their technical and marketing competencies has been noted (Hamel, Diz and Prahalad 1989). As an example, many alliances between airlines and hotels are formed where individual companies calculate that there will be benefits in sharing access to each other's customers who are mutually exclusive in terms of their geographical representation and/or product requirements. Networks of relationships have been shown to be particularly valuable where 'strategic holes' exist in the connectivity between members, and the network can create social capital by bringing together disparate individuals and organizations (Baker 1994; Burt 1992)