Coping with Diversity in Alliances for Innovation: The Role of Relational Social Capital and Knowledge Codifiability

Alliances are increasingly considered a key element for innovation, especially in knowledge‐intensive firms. While this is true, the mere membership to alliances does not explain innovation performance, and thus the alliance's characteristics that determine high performance must be examined. This research address the question of how the diversity of partners in a certain alliance for innovation affects innovation performance, and how this influence can be moderated by certain characteristics, such as the relational dimension of social capital and the type of knowledge shared among partners. The empirical analysis of a sample of 90 biotech companies shows that there is an inverted U‐shaped relationship between alliance partner diversity and innovation performance and confirms the positive moderating effects of relational social capital and knowledge codifiability. These findings contribute to the current research on alliances for innovation by providing empirical evidence on why some alliances perform better than others. Also, the results suggest that the study of alliance partner diversity, as a determinant of alliance performance, should not be addressed in isolation.     

The stability of strategic alliances: Characteristics, factors and stages

This paper presents a theoretical framework for understanding the evolutionary dynamics of strategic alliances. Using an integrated process model, we analyze the conceptual characteristics and antecedents of the stability of strategic alliances. The primary purpose of this study is to (1) conceptualize and characterize alliance stability to fill the academic gap in the literature, and (2) identify a range of endogenous factors underlying alliance stability across four developmental stages — partner selection, structuring/negotiation, implementation and performance evaluation — so as to fill the managerial relevance gap. From the discussion, we develop a number of propositions to facilitate future empirical testing of our conceptual model. Finally, we indicate some key implications for theoretical research and managerial practice.     

The Impact of Alliance Management Capabilities on Alliance Attributes and Performance: A Literature Review

The literature on alliances has identified a variety of inter‐firm antecedents of performance, including information and knowledge sharing between partners, shared partner understanding, and a focus on collective objectives. Recent studies have focused on alliance management capabilities (AMC) – firms' abilities to capture, share, store and apply alliance management knowledge – as an important antecedent of performance. This paper reviews 90 studies on AMC and makes two important contributions to the literature. First, the review provides an overview of and classification scheme for the different types of AMC to better organise the diverse empirical findings that have been presented in the literature. The novel classification distinguishes between general and partner‐specific AMC and between AMC stored within the firm and within the alliance. Second, consistent with the dynamic capabilities perspective, this paper offers a more detailed understanding of why AMC improve performance, by highlighting the intermediate impact of AMC on alliance attributes. In particular, the review demonstrates how the different categories of AMC influence alliances in terms of information and knowledge‐sharing between partners, shared partner understanding and the pursuit of collective goals. The review also demonstrates that these attributes improve performance. The authors note promising avenues for future empirical research that involve combining the classification scheme with research on the impact of AMC on alliance attributes and performance.     

Strategic Alliance Temporalities and Partner Opportunism*

The troubling potential for opportunistic behaviour in strategic alliances is acknowledged in both research and practice, and yet the antecedents of such opportunism remain largely unexplored in the literature. In this article we suggest that the inherent temporalities of alliances play significant roles in partner opportunism. We propose a model of potential partner opportunism that assigns antecedent and contingent roles to the temporal horizons of alliances and the temporal orientations of the member firms. We introduce the notion of alliance horizons and suggest that they are constituted by the temporal orientations of the member firms and a number of common alliance formation factors. We also discuss how these alliance horizons in conjunction with the temporal orientations of member firms result in different levels of potential opportunism. Lastly, we develop a number of propositions to facilitate empirical research on the temporal contingencies of partner opportunism and indicate directions for further studies.     

The Dynamics of Research Alliances: Examining the Effect of Alliance Experience and Partner Characteristics on the Speed of Alliance Entry in the Biotech Industry

Few studies have moved beyond the dyadic level of an ongoing alliance and examined factors contributing to the success of entering a series of alliances. In this paper we expect biotechnology firms over time to learn from their alliance experience and to develop general alliance capabilities. Specifically, we expect the speed with which they enter into new research alliances, e.g. their alliance formation rate, to be affected by capabilities built up in prior alliances as well as by characteristics of their partners. We use longitudinal event history data for the complete population of US biotechnology firms for 1973–1999 to test four hypotheses about factors affecting the rate of new alliance formation. Our analysis suggests that the speed of entering research alliances is affected by prior experience of the focal firm, but not by partner characteristics. Our findings provide evidence that biotech firms learn how to learn more effectively from multiple research alliances; however, this effect is generalized and not tied to specific characteristics of the alliance partner.     

Competing and Cooperating Similarity in Global Strategic Alliances: An Exploratory Examination

We used two variables, competing similarity and cooperating similarity, in developing a comprehensive model that forces a simultaneous treatment of partner characteristics and partner capabilities in global strategic alliances. An empirical test of this model on a sample of 70 global strategic alliances indicated mixed support for our hypotheses, and suggested that competing similarity has a negative effect and cooperating similarity has a positive effect on alliance outcomes. Findings also show that deliberate 'relational efforts' mitigate the frictional effects of differences in partner characteristics.     

A Review of Antecedents of International Strategic Alliance Performance: Synthesized Evidence and New Directions for Core Constructs

This paper provides a systematic review of 165 empirical studies on the antecedents of performance in international strategic alliances. It provides the most detailed display of definitions, rationales, measures and findings currently available. Hence, this state‐of‐the art literature review creates an accessible pool of knowledge that is highly relevant for future research on international strategic alliances. Further, it draws on this knowledge pool to build a model which highlights the quite different rationales advanced by researchers to explain associations between the antecedents and performance. The model makes the different rationales explicit and will aid researchers in identifying tests that can be performed to examine the links between antecedents and performance as well as the mechanisms through which such associations operate. Finally, the synthesized evidence is used to suggest that researchers should give increased attention to achieving congruence between measures of antecedents and performance.     

The Impacts of Alliance Purpose and Partner Similarity on Alliance Governance

It is generally recognized that the governance structure of an alliance has an impact on its probability of success. In this study, we examine the choice between two alternative alliance governance structures: equity and non-equity. Drawing from transaction cost economics, two sets of factors, namely alliance purpose (R&D or marketing) and cultural distance between partners, are hypothesized to influence the above choice. We further hypothesize that collaborative R&D alliances, where both parties contribute technical knowledge, are more likely to lead to the formation of equity alliances than non-collaborative research agreements, where only one partner may be doing the research work. Based on a sample of 2407 alliances formed in the global biotechnology industry, we find partial support for the hypothesized relationships. Specifically, we find that collaborative R&D alliances are more likely to be equity alliances, whereas non-collaborative R&D alliances do not have any impact on the choice of the governance form. We also find that alliances formed with a marketing purpose are less likely to be equity alliances. We did not find any relationship between cultural distance and the choice of equity alliances.     

知识嵌入性、知识流动与战略联盟结构升级的关系研究

知识嵌入性是知识经济时代战略联盟共享有限资源,推动产业结构升级的重要途径。为打开知识嵌入性与战略联盟结构升级关系的黑箱,以知识管理、战略创新及复杂网络等相关理论为基础,对知识嵌入性的构成维度予以划分。进一步地,设定知识嵌入性的构成维度为联盟结构升级的前置变量,引入知识流动作为中介变量,构建知识嵌入性、知识流动与战略联盟结构升级的概念模型。采用结构方程的研究方法,以长三角地区的战略联盟为研究对象,基于295份有效问卷进行实证检验。研究结果表明:基于知识嵌入的构成维度,知识互补性、知识兼容性、知识紧密度与知识协调度对战略联盟结构升级呈显著的正相关关系,知识流动分别在知识互补性、知识兼容性、知识紧密度、知识协调度与联盟结构升级的关系中起部分中介作用。研究明晰了知识嵌入性、知识流动与联盟结构升级的关系,解释了知识嵌入性对联盟结构升级的作用机理,为战略联盟的管理实践提供有益借鉴。     

Strategic leadership in organizational crises: A review and research agenda

Of all actors involved in managing an organizational crisis, strategic leaders play a particularly central role. However, the growing scholarship on the impact of strategic leaders in crisis situations is characterized by a high degree of fragmentation, considerably hindering the generation of parsimonious theory and practically useful insights. To address this issue, we conduct a systematic multidisciplinary literature review that spans the research streams on strategic leadership and organizational crises. For each type of strategic leader—Chief Executive Officer (CEO), top management team, and board of directors—we identify the different applied theoretical lenses and highlight commonalities and differences between studies and their insights. We use our review to derive an integrative conceptual framework that guides future research. Our exploratory review unveils that, while each type of strategic leader plays a significant role in a crisis context, the perspectives taken and the resulting evidence vary: as for the CEO, research focuses on social evaluations—for instance, based on the CEO's appearance—as well as agency-theoretic considerations—particularly, financial incentives. Regarding the top management team, research mostly adopts a managerial and organizational cognition lens, focusing on characteristics such as personality and human capital. Lastly, for the board of directors, agency-theoretic considerations again dominate the scholarly conversation, especially studies of board independence. Overall, we review and organize a rich but patchy research landscape, and we derive ample opportunities for novel theoretical and empirical inquiries into strategic leaders and their role in managing organizational crises.     

What is strategic leadership? Developing a framework for future research

We attempt to bring clarity to the concept of strategic leadership and guide its development by reviewing and synthesizing the existing management literature on how top managers and board directors influence organizations. We propose a new definition of strategic leadership and offer a framework organized around the essential questions of what strategic leadership is, what strategic leaders do, why they do it, and how they do it. To answer these questions, we organize our review around the eight functions strategic leaders serve, the key attributes of strategic leaders, the theories scholars have used to relate these functions and attributes to outcomes, contextual factors, and the organizational outcomes that strategic leaders affect. We identify how strategic leadership research is concentrated in five streams that rarely interact with each other, and offer suggestions for connecting these streams. Our review provides a big picture of what is known about individuals at the top levels of organizations and highlights the key areas where future investigation is essential.     

Developing strategic alliances: A conceptual framework for successful co-operation

Due to dramatically increasing global competition and in the light of Europe '92, companies have to concentrate on their particular competitive advantages and on those business activities they know well. The market, however, asks for an ever increasing range of products and services. ‘System deals’ include — along with a product — attractive sideline services, like project management, system implementation or supply of related products. In many cases, entering these markets or achieving technological breakthroughs is only possible with a strong partner.These recent developments forced corporations to consider alternative company structures. The failure of many strategic alliances, however, has clearly shown that understanding the development process of the alliance is critical for success. Christoph Bronder and Rudolf Pritzl present a structured procedure for developing strategic alliances that outlines four critical phases: strategic decision for an alliance, alliance configuration, partner selection, and alliance management.     

Internationaler Joint Venture Erfolg: Eine Meta-Analyse

To analyze the success factors of international joint ventures (IJVs), this study meta-analytically integrates 106 studies of 32.318 firms. The results show that the success factors from the partner level (e.g., operational and strategic fit, partner experience) and IJV level (e.g., commitment, trust, control, interdependence, conflicts, conflict management, and organizational learning) determine IJV performance. Further, results reveal that IJV type, industry, and geographical distance moderate the relationships between success factors and IJV performance. Thus, this study contributes to extant knowledge by synthesizing and contextualizing quantitative empirical IJV research.     

The personality factor: how top management teams make decisions. A literature review

Past research has increasingly suggested that CEO/TMT personality can play a relevant role in influencing various external (e.g. firm performance) and internal (e.g. firm organizational structure) management outcomes. These promising results need appropriate systematization and discussion, which we aim at providing through a literature review based on rigorous inclusion/exclusion criteria. Our analysis shows great heterogeneity in regard to both the personality traits and the personality based management outcomes explored by the investigated population of studies. Thus, we specifically use the framework provided by the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality to codify the publications and this framework allows us to identify some possible theoretical trajectories. These trajectories mainly regard the empirical testing of the highlighted associations between CEO emotional stability, extraversion and conscientiousness with bureaucratization, strategic pro-activity and firm performance. Our article is primarily intended for those scholars and practitioners who want to improve their knowledge about psychology-based decision making and behavioural corporate governance through the understanding of how CEO/TMT personality can affect their strategic decisions.     

The management of firms’ alliance network positioning: Implications for innovation

In spite of the frequent calls for a much more integrated approach, the field of management still faces the ever continuing challenges in attempting to bridge the gap between academic research and managerial actions and practices. The field of strategic alliances and firms’ networks are those among which research and practice are more diverging. Trying to cover this separation, the article presents an empirical research on automotive industry that investigates the effects on innovation performance of the position that firms occupy in the network of alliances. The hypothesis that guides this research is that innovation is generated not only from the resources that a company is able to develop internally, but also through access to resources and capabilities owned by the external companies and organizations that the firm itself is tied to through alliances and cooperation agreements. Beyond this broad argument, the paper links tightly research and practice showing way and how the quality of access to resources owned by partners is influenced by the position occupied in the network of alliances and not only by the existence of single collaborative ties. Assuming a managerial approach which relies on the milestones of network research, different types of positioning in the network of alliances are discussed and tested on their impact on innovation.     

Supply-Chain Strategy: Organizational Influence Through Supplier Alliances

The role of supply-chain management as an integral element in corporate strategy has been discussed in prior research, mostly at a broad conceptual level with relatively little empirical validation. This paper uses data from a longitudinal study of buyer-supplier relationships to evaluate the impact from firms' recent initiatives in developing strategic supplier alliances on the role played by the supply management effort in the corporate hierarchy. Contrary to anticipated results, the use of an alliance approach did not lead to any appreciable improvement in status and respect for supply management's role in developing corporate strategy. While several suggestions are offered to explain these results, the major conceptual models of supply-chain strategy are reassessed and a more appropriate and grounded framework for study is proposed. Further research is called for to empirically verify the link between strategic consideration for supply issues and firm success.     

Alliance formation issues for knowledge-based enterprises

Inter-firm collaboration among knowledge-intensive firms is increasing as a result of accelerating competition, falling regulatory barriers and rising customer expectations. Resource dependency theory is used to position knowledge as the key resource for the knowledge-based enterprise and to examine the suitability of alliances as a mode of knowledge acquisition and exchange, contrasted particularly with merger and acquisition. The alliance and knowledge literatures are reviewed, and particular attention is paid to the critical alliance formation stage. This stage is reviewed against a research model that posits firm performance in knowledge creation arises from a number of factors, including the motivation for an alliance, partner firm characteristics (the ability to develop and sustain valuable resources; absorptive capacity; combinative capability; experience with alliances; and appropriate design for knowledge exchange), the development of operating structures and norms, and the choice of alliance structure. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research..     

Cooperation and Knowledge Transfer within Buyer–Supplier Relationships: The Moderating Properties of Trust,Relationship Duration and Supplier Performance*

This paper examines the effect of relational factors on knowledge transfer within strategic buyer–supplier exchange. Prior research examining inter‐firm knowledge transfer has focused almost exclusively on horizontal forms of governance such as strategic alliances and joint ventures, whilst research on vertical forms, such as buyer–supplier relationships, is limited. We test the effect of four important relational properties: cooperation, trust, relationship duration and supplier performance. Quantitative data, gathered from 104 UK manufacturing firms in eight industry sectors, are used to analyse the hypothesized relationships through a moderated hierarchical regression model. Our study provides support for the importance of considering relational factors in the transfer of knowledge at the inter‐organizational level. In particular, the results indicate that knowledge transfer is positively influenced by the extent of cooperation, but that this relationship is moderated by the level of trust and the performance of the supplier firm. Managerial implications for these findings and future directions for research are then offered.     

我国中小企业策略联盟绩效及其影响因素的实证研究

探讨并提出了中小企业策略联盟绩效衡量指标、策略联盟绩效影响因素,对于策略联盟绩效和影响因素的关系提出相关假设,并在此基础上建立了中小企业策略联盟绩效及其影响因素的关系模型。运用问卷调查、访谈所获得的统计数据和Lisrel模型与软件,通过实证研究手段具体分析了我国中小企业现阶段策略联盟绩效影响因素对策略联盟绩效的影响关系与影响程度,进而检验了策略联盟绩效影响因素模型中的各项假设。     

技术联盟知识转移激励模型及其实证

在分析技术联盟知识转移特征基础上,运用委托代理理论构建技术联盟知识转移激励模型,并提出相关研究假设,以技术联盟中知识转移方企业为研究对象,采用问卷调查方法,探讨信息不对称情况下知识转移方特质和外部不确定性对激励的影响以及知识转移方努力水平的影响因素,使用SPSS 16.0对问卷进行信度和效度分析,运用线性回归统计方法验证研究假设。研究结果表明,在知识转移方特质中,努力对产出的影响程度与激励呈正相关关系,知识转移方的风险规避度与激励呈负相关关系,外部不确定性对激励的影响不显著;知识转移方努力水平的影响因素中,知识价值与知识转移方的努力水平正相关,努力对产出的影响程度与知识转移方的努力水平显著正相关,显性激励与知识转移方努力水平的相关关系不显著。