AbstractThis paper presents a flexible family which we call the $\alpha$ -mixture of survival functions. This family includes the survival mixture, failure rate mixture, models that are stochastically closer to each of these conventional mixtures, and many other models. The $\alpha$ -mixture is endowed by the stochastic order and uniquely possesses a mathematical property known in economics as the constant elasticity of substitution, which provides an interpretation for $\alpha$ . We study failure rate properties of this family and establish closures under monotone failure rates of the mixture’s components. Examples include potential applications for comparing systems.