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Despite an increased emphasis on strategic alliances in supply chain in the academic and practitioner literature, we have a limited understanding of the mechanisms that underlie the sustainability of partnership model in buyer-supplier relations.

This paper examines the role of context and actors in the dynamics of strategic alliance development, and their effect on its subsequent sustainability. Reconciling resource dependence, social network and contingency theories this paper proposes a model that links alliance sustainability with various conditions of supply chain’s internal and external environments. The theoretical conceptualisations are substantiated by the case study that examines the evolution of Rolls-Royce and Airbus partnership in the aviation industry.