Abstract: Abstract: Research on the relational risk of strategic alliances started in the 90s last century when two scholars Das & Teng creatively proposed the concept of relational risk and performance risk. Relational risk is concerned with the probability that partner firms lack commitment to the alliance and that their possible opportunistic behavior could undermine the prospects of an alliance. The generative mechanism of relational risk would be clarified on the basis of works done by researchers at home and abroad, that is, the differences between the focus and generative elements of relational risks in different phases of alliance are identified. In the meantime, the performance of Wahaha and its alliance partner Danone are studied in order to give some enlightenment.

Key words: strategic alliance, relational risk, generative mechanism, trust