Abstract
The aim of this paper is to gain insight into the characteristics of international strategic alliance (ISA) control and how it may affect the performance of the alliances in Malaysia. The study managed to recognize key factors of ISA control, i.e. managerial and financial contribution, technological contribution, strategic importance of the ISA and relative bargaining power of partners. In addition, the study also indicates that the ISA control in Malaysia relates to a two different control, namely, the control of foreign partner that is essentially related to strategic consideration and financial aspects and secondly, the control of Malaysia partner that is normally related to operational consideration and decentralized strategy. Besides that, the result also highlights different view of foreign and local partner on the ISA performance.