The role of alliance management, big data analytics and information visibility on new-product development capability

Many organizations are increasingly investing in building dynamic capabilities to gain competitive advantage. New products play an important role in gaining competitive advantage and can significantly boost organizational performance. Although new product development (NPD) is widely recognized as a potentially vital source of competitive advantage, organizations face challenges in terms of developing the right antecedents or capabilities to influence NPD performance. Our research suggests that organizations should invest in building alliance management capability (AMC), big data analytics capability (BDAC) and information visibility (IV) to achieve their desired NPD success. Informed by the dynamic capabilities view of the firm (DCV) we have stated seven research hypotheses. We further tested our hypotheses using 219 usable respondents gathered using a pre-tested instrument. The hypotheses were tested using variance based structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The results of our study paint an interesting picture. Our study makes some significant contribution to the DCV and offers some useful directions to practitioners engaged in NPD in the big data analytics era. We demonstrate that AMC and BDAC are lower-order dynamic capabilities and that AMC has a positive and significant influence on BDAC. In turn, AMC and BDAC influence NPD under the moderating influence of IV. Ours is one of the first studies to empirically establish an association among three distinct dynamic capabilities which are often considered in isolation: AMC, BDAC and NPD. Our findings support emergent views on dynamic capabilities and their classification into various orders. Lastly, we provide empirical evidence that information visibility acts as a contingent variable to both AMC and BDAC effects on NPD. We end our paper by outlining some limitations of our study and by offering useful future research directions.

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.

How Do Alliance Portfolio Factors Affect a Precision Medicine Firm’s Innovation Performance?

Precision medicine is an approach to disease treatment and prevention that seeks to maximize effectiveness by taking into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle. The medical paradigm has been changed with the emergence of precision medicine and many companies with business related to precision medicine should cooperate with other companies. The purpose of this study is to analyze the alliance portfolio factors that affect firms’ innovation performance. This study examined whether the diversity factors of the alliance portfolio and alliance management capability influenced its innovation performance. Additionally, we investigated the moderate effects of participation of research organizations in the alliance portfolio. As a result, there was an inverted U-shaped relationship between the industry diversity of the portfolio and innovation performance; therefore, the participation of research organizations in the alliance portfolio showed a positive effect. Additionally, the value governance diversity changed to have a positive effect by interacting with research organizations. This study provides information on the alliance portfolio factors that affect the innovation performance of precision medicine companies.

Alliance Management Practices for Higher Trust, Commitment and Inter-Organizational Relationship Performance: Evidence from Travel Companies in Vietnam

Vietnam tourism experienced impressive growth from 2008–2019, but it has weakened due to the impact of the pandemic up to the present. So, what should the travel companies and their partners do to overcome the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic? This paper aims to identify what alliance management practices (AMP) factors help improve the inter-organizational relationship performance (IORP) between travel companies and their partners through the mediating roles of trust and commitment. A quantitative approach was applied with data collection from representatives of 319 SMEs of travel companies and the PLS-SEM was used to test the hypotheses. The findings indicated that trust, commitment, coordination, and frequency of interaction directly affect IORP, and simultaneously, communication and participation have indirect impacts on IORP. This study provides suggestions for all tourism companies to be aware of the need to form relationships with other partners to sustainably survive and develop together.

Challenges for innovation cooperation in the biopharmaceutical industry during the Covid-19 pandemic

Purpose: This chapter seeks to verify the development of new partnerships and R&D alliances in the biopharmaceutical industry during the Covid-19 pandemic, but also to present the related challenges for innovation cooperation. Design/methodology/approach: The main method applied in this research was scientific study, meaning that the study applied descriptive, comparative, documentation, and desk research methods, along with deductive and inductive forecasting. Findings: The text presents new partnerships undertaken by biopharma companies (in and outside the industry) in order to face the pandemic and to discover and deliver anew vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 to the market. Moreover, the chapter describes the research projects in the European Union focused on the Covid-19 pandemic defeating. Thanks to more flexible and open cooperation, companies will greatly support the possibility to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic faster. Practical Implications: We should consider that due to the current situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the cooperation of companies and all entities in the biopharmaceutical R&D innovation ecosystem is even more challenging than before. Moreover, we should remember that the organizational fluidity of open innovation initiatives and multiparty relations increases the complexity of alliance management. The use of an open innovation model can significantly hasten the production process of new drugs and vaccines. Originality and value: Biopharma-university alliances can significantly increase the likelihood of creating better medical therapies for patients. Results of such cooperation enable a number of innovative projects, given the significant pressure on innovativeness and challenges caused by the pandemic. Using the latest IT technologies will allow physicians to even better monitor, diagnose, and care for patients with afocus on the patient-centered approach.

Exploring the Framework for Alliance Performance between Malaysia-Japan Defence Manufacturing Companies – A Conceptual Study

The defence industry is considered an important element of the overall defence capability of any country. Due to this, developing nations across the world have acknowledged the benefits of building a defence industrial base. Hence, there is rising interest in the defence sector to develop a strategic alliance for analysing the role, effect and nature of different types of cooperative behaviour among transnational companies. Hence, this paper intends to explore the antecedents that can help to assess the alliance outcomes for Malaysia-Japan defence companies. The study was based on RBV (resource based view), to discuss the alliance outcomes for both of these countries’ defence manufacturing companies that can help to gain access to their resources for the purpose of increasing their value through a suitable combination of resources. Moreover, four organizational success factors of alliance management are also discussed as a part of the framework explored in this study. This study provides meaningful insights for the defence manufacturing company managers and administrators to plan their current and future investments in building up the organizational success factors for alliance performance discussed in this study to achieve competitive advantage and sustainability in the long run.