Chang, S.-F., 2020. Exploration of factors influencing partnerships in ocean companies. In: Liu, X. and Zhao, L. (eds.), Today's Modern Coastal Society: Technical and Sociological Aspects of Coastal Research. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 111, pp. 253–257. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

In recent years, companies have been facing great pressure and threat from competition, so they have been looking for suitable partners to establish strategic partnerships. On the one hand, strategic partnerships work as a response strategy; on the other hand, they help to enhance each partner's competitive advantage. Although previous literature and related studies have paid attention to the development of partnerships, scholars have rarely made an integrated study of the development of partnerships. Therefore, this study intends to establish an integrated model for the development of partnerships, which is divided into three stages, namely, selecting the best partner, establishing a partnership, and maintaining a good partnership, and to discuss the development of the key influencing variables for each stage. The results of this study are as follows: (1) three types of ocean companies (marine fishery products companies, mariculture companies, and shipping companies) believe that the buyer and the seller should carefully select the cooperation object in the first stage, which will naturally contribute to the development of the relationship, and (2) the three types of ocean companies have a positive impact on the development of partnerships on importance of the variables is obviously related to the characteristics of the firm.