The Acquisition and Utilization of Information in New Product Alliances: A Strength-of-Ties Perspective

Abstract

In this article, the authors examine the acquisition and utilization of information in new product alliances. Drawing from research in social network theory with a focus on the strength-of-ties literature, the authors suggest that horizontal alliances have lower levels of relational embeddedness and higher levels of knowledge redundancy than vertical alliances. The authors then suggest that though embeddedness enhances both the acquisition and utilization of information in alliances, redundancy diminishes information acquisition but enhances information utilization. The authors test these ideas using a sample of 106 U.S. firms that recently have participated in new product alliances. Although the results are broadly supportive of the predictions, they are also surprising because they question key underlying assumptions of the strength-of-ties literature. For example, closely tied individual actors are typically assumed to share both high levels of embeddedness and high levels of redundancy, but the present research finds that this assumption does not hold for organizational actors. The authors discuss the implications of these findings specifically for new product alliances and for research on tie strength among organizations in general.

Consequences of customer engagement behavior: when negative Facebook posts have positive effects

“…Tie strength also has a considerable impact on information processing (Chandler and Wieland 2010). The marketing and sociology literature (e.g., Rindfleisch and Moorman 2001;Uzzi 1996) suggests that stronger ties generate a richer information exchange. Accordingly, it can be assumed that information provided by a strong tie is processed with higher effort compared to information from a weak tie.…”

Radical innovation in strategic partnerships: A framework for analysis

“…Not surprisingly, companies increasingly collaborate to pursue radical innovation. The benefits of conducting R&D in partnerships are multiple, including access to unique resources and competencies of partners, sharing of risks and development costs, enhancing firm innovativeness and reducing time to the market (Gulati et al 2012, Rindfleisch & Moorman 2001, Sampson 2007.…”

“…(Gulati et al 2012), resulting in greater informational advantage and strengthening partners' capacity to generate radical innovation. Broad search generates synergistic learning effects and produces original knowledge stocks (Rindfleisch & Moorman 2001). Radical innovation often relies on integration of highly diverse and previously unrelated technologies.…”

Cross-Function and Same-Function Alliances: How Does Alliance Structure Affect the Behavior of Partnering Firms?

“…Instead, prior studies have focused their attention primarily on the connection between the conditions surrounding alliance formation and the stability of alliances (Beamish 1985, Bucklin andSengupta 1993, Gomes-Casseres 1994, Robertson andGatignon 1998, Branstetter andSakakibara 2002). Similarly, although a growing body of literature studies the learning processes that take place within alliances (e.g., Hamel 1991, Dodgson 1993, Mowery et al 1996, Dussauge et al 2000, Inkpen 2000, Rindfleisch and Moorman 2001, few investigate how learning might influence the resources committed by partnering firms (e.g., Khanna 1998.…”