Extant research also suggests that relational norms are easier to create and sustain in alliances intent on knowledge combination than in those engaged in organizational learning (Grant & Baden-Fuller, 2004; Grunwald & Kieser, 2007). The reason for this is, in part, that in the former type of alliance, partners are likely to display a lower priority placed on knowledge protectiveness (Simonin, 1999). Thus in knowledge combining alliances, long term cooperation is perceived as less risky; partners are not in a “race” to learn faster than each other (Hamel, 1991) and hence will be less anxious that their specialist capabilities may be captured or internalized by their partners. We can reasonably infer that, in knowledge combining alliances, relational governance can support a degree of inter-firm “combinative capability” to enable joint problem solving critical to product development (Eisenhardt & Martin, 2000).