Abstract
The strategic alliance has gradually become an effective way for most small and medium-sized enterprises to obtain external resources and technologies. This study explores the main factors that affect the company's alliance performance and the role that alliance innovation plays in the relationship. While previous research has demonstrated the impact of entrepreneurial orientation, network capabilities, and knowledge management practices on firm performance, how alliance performance is affected in the context of alliances has not been specifically demonstrated. This paper establishes a new conceptual framework to evaluate the relationship between different elements and is supported by a questionnaire survey of 490 SMEs in China. The study demonstrates that knowledge management practices have the most significant impact on alliance performance. And alliance innovation plays a partial mediating role in the influence of different factors on alliance performance. The article concludes with the study's limitations and detailed directions for future research.