Alliance management and innovation under uncertainty

Abstract

Drawing on the configuration argument of strategic fit – i.e., an effective alignment of a firm's strategy with its environment, internal structures, and processes – and the resource-based view, this paper clarifies the impact of alliance strategy, alliance management resources, and alliance management capabilities on innovation performance in collaborative ventures. This study of 441 collaborative ventures in the electronics industry offers empirical support for the configuration argument. First, greater alliance strategy formalization influences innovation performance directly and indirectly. Alliance management capabilities – that reflect organizational routines to implement an alliance strategy – partially mediate this effect. Second, alliance management capabilities leverage alliance management resources in that the effect of the former on innovation performance is moderated by the latter. Furthermore, greater innovation strategy formalization affects innovation performance and moderates the direct effect of alliance strategy formalization on innovation performance; an effect that increases with technological uncertainty.

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“…There are opportunities for further integration of these literatures. For example, research could examine how the ecosystem leadership capabilities we have described in this paper may be embedded in firms' alliance management capabilities (Bouncken, Fredrich, & Gudergan, 2022;Schreiner, Kale, & Corsten, 2009). In addition, while we have focused on the role of agreements, standards and capabilities, structural characteristics of the networks (such as the centrality of a potential ecosystem leader in an existing network) may also affect the process of ecosystem emergence and network formation (Podolny, 2001).…”

Will technological innovation uncertainty affect the distribution of benefits from low‐carbon innovation activities in industrial clusters?—A study based on gray Shapley values

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