The type of alliances formed by businesses in pursuit of their various

The verb''are'' at the end of the underlined portion should match with the subject in the beginning of sentence ''The type'' , which is singular.

Also ''their'' refers to ''businesses'', which is plural.


Option-D correctly matches the Subject-Verb & Noun -Pronoun:

(D) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives is

(A) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are
Various + objectives incorrect
(B) formed by business in pursuit of their various objectives is
plural noun (subject) alliances incorrect
(C) forming businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are
Modifier misplacement forming modifies alliances
(D) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives is
incorrect same as B
(E) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objective are
Correct
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The type of alliances formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are one critical component of great leadership decisions.

(A) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are
should be is

(B) formed by business in pursuit of their various objectives is
their does not have any logical antecedent, alliances as antecedent does not make sense

(C) forming businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are.
should be formed and are should be replaced by is...forming suggests its happening at the moment

(D) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives is
CORRECT. their logical antecedent is businesses and is goes well with type

(E) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objective are
should be objectives and are should be replaced by is

IMO D

Type of alliances -> Plural, will be formed by businesses and not business, With this in mind we can eliminate B.

C) can be removed because of the +ing verb, Intent of the sentence is that type of alliances is formed out of something

(E) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objective are
objective singular, it should be plural -> Eliminate

(A) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are
Type of alliances is one of the critical component and not are

(D) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives is
Correct Answer
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The type of alliances: singular so is vs are is would be correct..

left with option B & D

in B formed by business in pursuit of their is wrong as business is singular

in D businesses in pursuit of their correct ; plural businesses...

IMO D

The type of alliances formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are one critical component of great leadership decisions.

(A) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are

(B) formed by business in pursuit of their various objectives is

(C) forming businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are

(D) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives is

(E) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objective are

Firstly, split between "is" and "are".
"The type of alliances" is singular. Hence, "is" is correct.
B and D remain.

Secondly, the term "their" refers to a plural noun.
"Businesses" is required.
D is correct.

sudarshan22 aragonn

Can you explain why E is correct and why D is incorrect?
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Hi pikolo 2510.

I think the more interesting question is why (E) is correct but (A) is not, as the two are identical.

Getting back to your question, there is no clearly correct choice to this question.

A "type" would not be a component, but the singular subject "type" does agree with the singular verb "is." So, (D) does not make sense but has subject-verb agreement.

I guess the basis of (E)'s being correct is an idea that "type" is some kind of collective noun that is plural if it represents a plural group of nouns. That take does not really make sense, but it seems to be the rationale underlying (E)'s being the OA. Of course, the subject complement, "one critical component" is singular. So, even if we were to accept that "type" is a collective noun, to say that "alliances" are a component would not make complete sense.

In the final analysis, this question does not have a clearly correct choice and has two answers that are exactly the same. So, your best bet is to ignore this question.
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pikolo2510 - Indeed an ambiguity here. I felt the same way when I saw this question yesterday. here is my understanding, Though wait for sudarshan22 to put OE. Meanwhile I would add generis - her views would definitely helpful for us.

Look at following lines.

The type of beers I like, are German. - but point is the type is German or the beer is German. ? So is/are need to be used for German and not for type. Again we need to take decision on the basis of meaning.

Same way I will ask question on the ground, 'alliances' is critical or 'the type of alliances' is critical ? something tells me 'alliances' is what important here as its for 'their various objectives'. Mark that 'kind of' or 'sort of' is also used in same fashion. usage must be governed by meaning.


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Official Explanation :

The main verb in this sentence is are, and its subject is type, since type is singular and are is plural, the two are not in agreement. Eliminate (A), (C), and (E).

Choice (B) has the plural pronoun their referring back to the singular noun business. As these two words do not agree (B) can be eliminated.

Choice (D) correctly conjugates are as is and keeps the word businesses as it is. Choice (D) is the correct answer.
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aragonn , pikolo2510 , the answer is D. I changed the OA.

sudarshan22 transcribed the question perfectly.

Options A and E differ by one letter.
Option A uses plural objectives.
Option E uses singular objective.

As far as the phrase "type of alliances"?

It's legitimate. It is used in a specialized manner; I would almost call it a "term of art."

But I think it is plural. The literature I trust uses it as a plural collective noun.

I ran a JSTOR search. Many articles use the phrase.
If you run a Google search, type in, with quotation marks, "type of alliances"

• Look at the third sentence HERE.
(That journal is well-respected.)
• In this excerpt, see #1 in the first paragraph, HERE.
• and HERE

This sentence makes sense with the phrase:
Were there significant differences in the number, context, duration, and type of alliances Company X formed before and after deregulation?*

I have two choices.
I can leave the question as-is.
I can change the original to "type of alliance" and note the change.

Give me a little while to check a few things.

Hope that helps.


*See More, Elizabeth & Mcgrath, Michael. (2011). Strategic alliances as collaborative strategy or a method of implementing strategy: A case study.
Accessed HERE, p. 14 on Feb 4, 2019.
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A) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are(Incorrect)

(B) formed by business in pursuit of their various objectives is(Incorrect)

(C) forming businesses in pursuit of their various objectives are(Incorrect)

(D) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objectives is(Correct)

(E) formed by businesses in pursuit of their various objective are(Incorrect)

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