University-Industry R&D Alliances – An Exploration of Alliance Capabilities Measures

Background: Alliance capabilities studies have long emerged since the 1990s, focusing mainly on firm-to-firm collaboration. However, research on university-industry alliances only emerged from the 2000s. Alliance capabilities are portrayed as a crucial condition to achieve the targeted collaboration outcomes and sustainable relationships. As most alliance capabilities studies focus on firm-to-firm collaboration, research on university-industry R&D alliance is still scarce. Thus, the measurement items for alliance capabilities in the university-industry R&D context are still under-developed. Thus, to investigate how alliance capabilities affect university-industry R&D performance in Malaysia, the relevant measures must first be defined. This paper intends to properly define the measurement items for alliance capabilities in the context of university-industry R&D alliances. Methodology: The alliance capabilities measures are adapted from various literature to accommodate both university and industry perspectives. In finalizing the measurement, in-depth pre-testing was conducted by five strategic management subject matter experts in ensuring face and content validity. Results: There are three alliance capability dimensions. The first dimension is alliance management capability which includes goal setting, process configuration, alliance structure, coordination, management support, and alliance evaluation. The second dimension is alliance integration capability which incorporates relational capabilities, inter-organizational communication, relational capital, and project team effectiveness. The third is alliance learning capability which measures alliance experience, knowledge articulation, knowledge sharing, knowledge codification, internalization, and relationship learning. Although this study successfully develops a set of measurement items for alliance capabilities in university-industry R&D, further statistical analysis is required to test this scale. Conclusion: To date, quantitative measurement items for alliance capabilities in the context of university-industry R&D alliances are still at the infancy stage. Although the measurements are yet to be statistically analyzed, they can be used as a benchmark for future university-industry R&D alliances studies.

Determinants of alliance productivity and performance: evidence from the automobile industry

PurposeThis study aims to identify critical factors and examine their impact on alliance performance from an organizational learning point of view.Design/methodology/approachA modified total interpretive structural modeling (M-TISM) methodology was used in this study. The different paths/links in the developed M-TISM model were further validated by using the Mahindra-Ford alliance case study.FindingsIn this study, a total of seven critical factors were identified using an extensive literature review, and a hierarchical model was developed. Results show that prior alliance experience, inter-partner learning, knowledge transfer, absorptive capacity and knowledge internalization have a positive on the alliance productivity and performance. Furthermore, the findings indicate that prior alliance experience remains essential for alliance productivity and performance, while knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity can contribute to inter-partner learning and knowledge internalization in strategic alliances.Research limitations/implicationsThis study can help managers and policymakers to understand the identified critical factors from an organizational learning perspective and understand their impact on the alliance performance in a competitive environment. The managers should know that previous alliance experience, learning from partner firms, building an absorptive capacity, etc., are necessary to achieve superior alliance productivity and performance. For academicians, the M-TISM methodology used in this study can provide a mechanism to perform exploratory research and build a hierarchical model in different management research fields.Originality/valueThe study fills research gaps by identifying key factors, developing a hierarchical model, and examining their impact on the performance of strategic alliances in the Indian automotive industry.

Riding out the storm of industry convergence: how do alliance and acquisition experience matter for firm survival?

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how alliances and acquisitions matter for the adaptation of firms facing industry convergence. Building on the disruptive innovation perspective, this study theorizes that during industry convergence, as firms' inter-industry alliance (acquisition) experience increases, those that have more intra-industry alliance (acquisition) experience will exhibit higher survival chances than those that do not. Design/methodology/approach A longitudinal panel data set of 147 firms' alliances, acquisitions and exit data was constructed in the context of convergence between the US telecommunications equipment and computer networking industries from 1989 to 2003. The survival analysis method was used to test hypotheses. Firms' patent and product-market portfolio data reveal a steady rise in the extent of convergence between the two industries within the period of the study. Findings The results suggest that both hypotheses gain support, having only inter-industry alliance experience negatively affects firm survival and the survival-enhancing impact of combined inter- and intra-industry acquisition experience is weaker than the impact of combined inter- and intra-industry alliance experience. Originality/value This paper contributes to the industry convergence literature and disruptive innovation research by furnishing evidence that the combination of inter- and intra-industry alliance (acquisition) experience can be a valuable source of survival-enhancing benefits during industry convergence that has pernicious influences on firms.

Alliance experience and performance outcomes: A meta-analysis

Alliance experience has been a frequent topic in strategic alliance research in recent decades. Nonetheless, its performance consequences, either as a whole or differentiated into general versus partner-specific alliance experience, are neither theoretically clear nor empirically consistent. We use a range of meta-analytic techniques to integrate the empirical findings of 143 studies and provide a more conclusive assessment compared to prior research. Our study thus addresses a long-standing, understudied, and controversial topic: the distinction between the two types of alliance experiences. Going beyond traditional sub-group analysis, we reveal the contextual contingencies by examining how different types of alliance experiences and performance outcomes jointly affect the alliance experience–performance relationship. Moreover, we identify critical country-level institutional contingencies that moderate the focal effect.

The Influence of Multinational Corporations on International Alliance Formation Behavior of Colocated Start-Ups

We theorize that vicarious learning theory provides a framework for understanding how small- and medium-sized start-ups can learn from the activity of a variety of regional actors, not just from the activity of colocated peer firms (i.e., other start-ups). Furthermore, we suggest that the magnitude of the impact of vicarious learning is influenced by a firm’s own specific experience with a variety of actors. We use longitudinal data of the population of German biotechnology start-ups and pharmaceutical multinational corporations (MNCs) between 1996 and 2015 across 19 German biotechnology regions. We show that colocated start-ups’ international expansion is positively impacted by the regional network centrality of colocated MNCs and that this relationship is moderated by a start-up’s direct alliance experience with these entities. Our results highlight how important it is for researchers to differentiate the distinct and separate influences a wide variety of actors have on vicarious learning to more clearly identify outcomes of this influence. We also provide evidence that the influence of MNCs is heterogeneous and depends on whether MNCs are domestic or foreign and on their R&D intensity, yet find that country of origin has no significant influence. Our study makes a number of contributions, one of which is research on alliances, supporting conflicting arguments on the subsequent impacts of experience. We further find that certain types of alliance experience may not be transferrable to induce start-ups’ future international expansion, and in some cases may even hinder it.

The role of frequent engagement in alliances in firm likelihood to patent

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of alliance experience in firm innovation; it argues that, while cumulative alliance experience has a marginally diminishing contribution to likelihood of firm innovation over time, frequent engagement in alliances and an expanding alliance portfolio inhabit an enhancing role. This reveals new dimensions to the role of alliance experience as an antecedent to firm learning in managing alliances and to the development of alliance capabilities. Design/methodology/approach The paper estimates a range of models identifying the relationship between alliance experience and firm innovation. The panel data sample captures the full range of firms active in the UK bio-pharmaceuticals sector during the early stages of its development observing them from 1991 to 2001. An exploratory case study analysis is employed to shed light on the nuanced factors linking frequent engagement in alliances to the development of practices for efficient alliance management. Findings The paper shows that cumulative alliance experience has a marginally diminishing contribution to likelihood of firm innovation over time, while frequent engagement in alliances and the ensuing expansion of alliance portfolios enhance firm innovation. The exploratory case analysis demonstrates a link between frequent engagement in alliances and the development of processes for alliance management that could collectively reflect alliance capabilities. Originality/value Contribution derives from a longitudinal analysis of an original panel data set that maps the UK bio-pharmaceuticals sector over the initial period of its development. The paper sheds light on factors that can compel firms to form alliance capabilities, and extends a currently thin body of work on the foundations and antecedents to alliance and alliance portfolio capabilities.