Strategic partnerships and corporate sustainability: the importance of alliance management capabilities in the path to sustainable development

Purpose This study examines how inter-organizational partnership characteristics—specifically goal alignment, partnership duration, and stakeholder diversity—affect corporate sustainability, and investigates the moderating role of alliance management capability (AMC) in resource-constrained innovation ecosystems. Design/methodology/approach We surveyed 202 managers and employees at firms in the University of Tehran Science and Technology Park using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings All three partnership characteristics—goal alignment, partnership duration, and stakeholder diversity—have significant positive effects on corporate sustainability. Notably, AMC exerts a paradoxical moderating role: it amplifies the positive impact of long-term partnerships but diminishes the effects of goal alignment and stakeholder diversity in high-AMC firms. Originality/value This study advances theory by demonstrating the paradoxical effects of AMC, showing that it can both enable and constrain sustainability outcomes depending on partnership characteristics, thereby extending the Resource-Based View and the Information Overload Hypothesis. Practically, the findings provide actionable guidance for managers to optimize partnership portfolios and strengthen sustainability strategies in innovation-driven and resource-constrained environments.