Academics have argued that a major determinant of how much knowledge a company gains from an alliance is ability to learn from its alliance partner. For example,in a five-year study of strategic alliances between major multinationals,Gary Hamel, Yves Doz,and C.K. prahalad focused on a number of alliances between Japanese companiesand Western (European or American) partners. In every case in which a Japanese company emerged froman alliance stronger than its Western partner, the Japanese nad made a greater to learn. Few Western companies studiedseemed want to learn from their Japanese partners. They tended to regard the alliance purely as a cost-sharing or risk-sharing device,rather than as an opportunity to learn how a potential competitor does business.