The formation of status asymmetric ties: a perspective of positive externality and empirical test

Previous studies have investigated the circumstances that motivate firms to form status asymmetric ties. However, these studies have mainly focused on firm attributes or environmental factors. Deviating from prior works, we propose that firms can take advantage of alliance portfolios to trade resources with potential partners’ status. Specifically, a firm that can access high-quality portfolio technological resources can better realize exchanges with partners’ status. The degree of positive externality depends on the relationships of focal firms with existing partners and their capabilities to utilize external knowledge resources. Data of alliances formed in the computer industry in the USA reveal that a focal firm is more likely to ally with a high-status partner if it can access high-quality portfolio technological resources. Such positive externality of portfolio technological resources is stronger when the focal firm has more repeated ties with its existing partners and when they utilize more external knowledge resources.     

Complementarity in alliance portfolios and firm innovation

This paper assesses the impact on firm innovation of combining alliance-specific and partner-specific attributes within a firm’s alliance portfolio. In a panel data analysis of the innovation performance of 119 firms operating in the pharmaceutical industry during 1985–2007, we test whether firm’s alliance portfolio displays complementarities across four dimensions. The results suggest that specific combinations of attributes may diminish innovation by decreasing the efficiency of diversity management or by generating redundancies. On the other hand, other alliance portfolio practices are mutually reinforcing and thus foster innovation.     

Firms' Eco-innovation Intensity and Sectoral System of Innovation: The Case of French Industry

The objective of this paper is to analyse the influence of firms’ internal organisational structures and different ways of mobilising external resources on their eco-innovative intensity and observe whether, at the firm level, these determinants vary according to sectoral conditions. Using the French CIS 2008 survey, the results reveal that, beyond the classic effect of regulatory pressure, firms’ eco-innovation intensity is structured by the firm's internal characteristics, technological opportunities and sectoral conditions.     

Top management team diversity,ambidextrous innovation and the mediating effect of top team decision-making processes

Until now, the amount of evidences for and discussions of how a top management team (TMT)’s composition influences ambidextrous innovation are very limited. This article develops and tests a model that connects task-related TMT diversity and TMT decision-making processes to explain the heterogeneity in a firm’s strategic focus on ambidextrous innovation. The paper is based on a questionnaire survey/analysis with sample of 179 TMTs from high-tech firms in China. The conclusion exhibits that TMT task-related diversity has a strong effect on a firm’s strategic focus on ambidextrous innovation through strategic decision-making activities. The findings suggest that the TMT debate and decision comprehensiveness can mediate the relationship between TMT task-related diversity and a firm’s strategic focus on ambidextrous innovation. Overall, these results suggest that involvement in debate and comprehensiveness of strategic decision activities may bring out the potential of a TMT’s diversity in enabling them to focus on ambidextrous innovation strategy.     

Using the entropy-based patent measure to explore the influences of related and unrelated technological diversification upon technological competences and firm performance

This study applies the entropy-based patent measure to explore the influences of related technological diversification (RTD) and unrelated technological diversification (UTD) upon technological competences and firm performance. The results show that RTD has a monotonically positive effect on technological competences and UTD has an inverse U-shaped effect on technological competences. Besides, the results demonstrate that the extent of the positive influence of RTD upon technological competences is better than that of UTD upon technological competences. If American pharmaceutical companies would like to adopt technological diversification, this study suggests that they should undertake RTD, rather than UTD. In addition, this study finds out that technological competences mediate the relationship between firm performance and both of RTD and UTD. Although RTD and UTD cannot significantly influence firm performance directly, they can positively affect firm performance indirectly through technological competences.     

Driving business performance: innovation complementarities and persistence patterns

Complementarities between technological and non-technological innovation are crucial determinants of firm performance. Although innovation complementarity has been extensively tested in the empirical literature, it has not been analysed in conjunction with innovation persistence. This fact is mainly due to the lack of data sets able to provide adequate longitudinal information. The capacities to develop market-oriented behaviour and introduce new organisational innovations, together with technological innovation, are the drivers of a firm’s productivity and profitability. We find that these activities complement technological innovation and that their impact is greater when they persist over time, thus introducing a more general concept of innovation persistence. We present an empirical model based on a large new panel of Italian manufacturing firms covering the period 2000–2012 which enables us to determine the precise impacts of a firm’s innovative attitude, in a broad definition that incorporates non-technological innovation and persistence, on its productivity and profitability.     

A general framework for analysing diversity in science, technology and society.

This paper addresses the scope for more integrated general analysis of diversity in science, technology and society. It proposes a framework recognizing three necessary but individually insufficient properties of diversity. Based on 10 quality criteria, it suggests a general quantitative non-parametric diversity heuristic. This allows the systematic exploration of diversity under different perspectives, including divergent conceptions of relevant attributes and contrasting weightings on different diversity properties. It is shown how this heuristic may be used to explore different possible trade-offs between diversity and other aspects of interest, including portfolio interactions. The resulting approach offers a way to be more systematic and transparent in the treatment of scientific and technological diversity in a range of fields, including conservation management, research governance, energy policy and sustainable innovation.     

How R&D partner diversity influences innovation performance: an empirical study in the nano-biopharmaceutical field

R&D partner diversity is generally acknowledged to help organizations to improve innovation performance. This study investigates the influence mechanism in depth by introducing technological diversification as mediator and the structural holes of new knowledge elements from R&D partners and the degree centrality of the focal organization’s knowledge elements as two moderators. The empirical analysis is based on patent data in the emerging nano-biopharmaceutical field and includes 554 innovative organizations. Results show that partners’ organizational diversity and geographical diversity have positive effects on focal organizations’ innovation performance through improving technological diversification. The structural holes of new knowledge elements from R&D partners and the degree centrality of the focal organization’s knowledge elements moderate the process in the way that when they are at high levels, the indirect positive effects of partner diversity on innovation performance through technological diversification are strengthened.     

The interaction mode and geographic scope of firms’ technology alliances: implications of balancing exploration and exploitation in R&D

This paper proposes that the interaction mode, i.e. interactive and iterative, and geographic scope, i.e. domestic and international, of technology alliances generate sources of exploration and exploitation for firms. An implication of this idea is that firms can use these sources for balancing its internal focus on exploratory and exploitative research and development activities (R&D). Then, the paper suggests that the use of this balancing strategy has positive effects on a firm’s innovative performance. Using panel data based on Spanish manufacturing companies for the period 2004–2012, the empirical results confirm that firms balancing their internal exploration or exploitation in R&D with sources of external exploitation or exploration in their technology alliances are the firms with better prospects to produce innovation streams. Implications for the literature on complementarities in innovation, ambidexterity and R&D alliance formation are derived from the analysis.     

Supplier selection for outsourcing from the perspective of protecting crucial product knowledge

This paper considers the supplier selection problem in terms of the characteristics of the products/processes to be outsourced. Emphasis is placed on the possible risk that may arise in sharing or transferring crucial product/process knowledge to suppliers during outsourcing. Two indices are employed to assess the suitability of a supplier for outsourcing a product/process. The first measures the supplier's capability for technological innovation in the products for which they offer outsourcing services, and includes investment in R&D projects and the ratio of R&D personnel to the total work force. The second index measures the supplier's practices in protecting its clients’ intellectual property rights, and includes corporate image, track record in protecting clients’ intellectual property rights, and compliance with internal and external requirements. These two indices are then used to classify suppliers into four major groups, which are in turn assigned to classes of components/processes depending on their strategic importance and vulnerability – a portfolio approach. The proposed portfolio approach has been validated via a substantial empirical study involving data for 401 parts, 216 suppliers, and 36 manufacturing companies operating in China.     

When does the diverse partnership of R&D alliances promote new product development? The contingent effect of the knowledge base

Diverse R&D alliance partnerships not only provide access to broad external knowledge but also bring considerable expenses caused by transaction costs and absorption problems. The effective utilization of external knowledge in developing new products is closely related to the internal knowledge base. This study examines how firms' knowledge base properties influence the relationship between diverse R&D alliance partnerships and NPD performance. We empirically find that increases in firms' knowledge complementarity reinforce the positive impact of diverse alliance partners on NPD performance, but increases in firms’ knowledge substitutability attenuate. These findings offer valuable managerial implications that firms should commit more seriously to their internal knowledge base so that they can achieve higher NPD performance when establishing R&D alliances with external actors.     

Effects of external uncertainties and power on opportunism in supply chains: evidence from China

This study examines the determinants of opportunism in supply chain relationships in emerging markets. Drawing on transaction cost theory and resource dependence theory, we propose that external uncertainties (environmental uncertainty and legal unprotectability) influence opportunism through power (coercive and non-coercive). The results, based on 240 companies in China, indicate that environmental uncertainty enhances supplier opportunism directly and indirectly through the buyer’s use of coercive power over the supplier, while legal unprotectability enhances supplier opportunism directly, but reduces it indirectly through the buyer’s use of non-coercive power. While buyer coercive power increases supplier opportunism, buyer non-coercive power decreases it.     

Why do entrepreneurs refuse venture capital?

Despite the evidence on the positive effect of venture capital (VC) on portfolio firm performance, such evidence badly pulls up alongside the non-negligible number of entrepreneurial firms that choose to refuse VC. This is the first study that investigates the determinants behind the missed realizations of VC investor-investee dyads by focusing on the Italian VC market. We theorize and empirically document that entrepreneurs’ human capital background and venture-specific characteristics influence the decision to accept or refuse VC. Specifically, our findings show that technically literate founders decrease the likelihood to refuse VC while family linkages in the ownership structure increase the likelihood to refuse VC.     

Top management Team's cognitive diversity and the Firm's ambidextrous innovation capability: The mediating role of ambivalent interpretation

The top management team (TMT) diversity has received considerable attention in literature, especially due to its influence on an organization's innovation strategy. While previous studies have considered diversity in terms of education, experience, skills, functionality, and gender, little is known about the TMT's cognitive diversity. We contribute to the literature by examining the influence of the TMT's cognitive diversity on an organization's ambidextrous innovation capability; i.e., its incremental and radical innovation capability. Results from 50 TMTs involved in the electronics industry support our hypothesized mediating role of ambivalent interpretation; that the TMT cogitative diversity positively influences ambivalent interpretation, and this, in turn, positively influences both radical and incremental innovation capability. These findings have important implications for how a firm's decision makers (i.e., the TMT) with their diverse cognitive styles support building the firm's ambidextrous capability through ambivalent interpretation.     

Product innovation success based on cancer research in the pharmaceutical industry: co-publication networks and the effects of partners

This paper builds upon the literature which provides conflicting theoretical insights and empirical results concerning the importance of companies’ collaborative relations, their position within a network of collaborative relations and the effects on their innovative performance. Taking the importance of collaborations and networks in the pharmaceutical industry into account, the paper untangles the influence of the firm’s co-publication relations with different types of partners and its network position on the company’s product innovation in a specific disease area—cancer. We find rather robust evidence that in particular, companies’ indirect connections within the co-publication network, including connections to academic institutions and biotechnology companies, support product innovation. In contrast to evidence in the strategic alliance literature, direct co-publication links to biotechnology companies do not support product innovation in terms of new cancer medications.     

煤炭产业技术创新战略的探讨

在分析和探讨技术创新及其战略理论的基础上,分析了我国煤炭产业的技术创新及其战略问题,考虑到技术发展阶段差异较大的特点,先进企业的创新战略应选择率先创新与模仿创新并存,其他大多数企业则应主要采用模仿创新战略,并形成产学研相结合、主体及模式多元化的集成创新格局。     

A structured approach to explore technological competencies through R&D portfolio of photovoltaic companies by patent statistics

When the technological development of an enterprise is path dependent, core technological competencies will develop. In addition, core technological competencies promote technological development. Consequently, enterprises should always examine the advantages of their core technological competencies. Under dynamic competition, enterprises should monitor their own performance as well as their competitors at all times and consequently adjust their technological strategies. This study used two patent indices, Patent Share and Revealed Technological Advantage, to measure the internal core technological competencies of manufacturers. It also integrated four other indices namely: (1) Technology Attractiveness (Relative Growth Rate), (2) growth potential of technologies (Relative Development of Technology Growth Rate), (3) Relative Patent Position, and (4) Revealed Patent Advantages. These were used to analyze the external strengths and weaknesses of the research and development (R&D) portfolios of companies. These two analytical methods can effectively identify the internal core technological competencies and the external advantages of R&D portfolios of leading companies in the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry. This study also discussed the relationship between R&D portfolios and core technological competencies of leading solar photovoltaic companies and compared those with two core technological competencies with those that have a single core technological competence. The study results show that the R&D portfolios of companies engaged in a single, specific technology field have advantages. This study helps improve the quality of technological planning and decision-making of manufacturers, proposes a method of using core technological competencies to analyze the advantages of R&D portfolios, and helps solar PV manufacturers monitor their own core technological competencies as well as their competitors and partner companies.     

Citations as a measure of technological impact: A review of forward citation-based measures

The number of forward citations a patent receives accumulates over time and appears to be correlated to the patent‘s (i.e. invention's) technological impact. A dominant theory suggests that highly cited patents contain an important technological advance. However, a variety of citation based measures have been proposed by different authors. This study, via a narrative literature review, identified nine forward citation-based measures that appear of particular relevance. We describe each measure and present them in a comparative format.The measures are divided into two broad categories: firstly the ones that are particularly relevant to the patent level (citation index, forward citation frequency, generality, influence), and secondly the ones that are relevant to the patent portfolio level (current impact index, herfindal-hirschman index, hindrance index, relative patent position, technology strength).We hope research scholars and industrial users find this review helpful for citation analysis and intellectual property analytics, especially when wanting to employ forward citation-based measures to assess technological impact.     

Measuring technological diversification: identifying the effects of patent scale and patent scope

Although technological diversification is an important strategic decision for both large and small firms alike, the conventional method of measuring such diversification may well introduce significant scale bias against small- and medium-sized firms. We examine this issue in this study using a sample of 73 Taiwanese integrated-circuit (IC) design firms covering the period from 1995 to 2007 and conclude that the conventional measure of technological diversification reflects the spread or distribution amongst technology classes of a company’s current technology portfolio, and does not capture the incremental expansion in technological scope, or the ‘dynamic act of diversification’, as reflected in our alternative scope measure. Our results suggest clear constraints on the applications made under the conventional index, particularly for firms with small patent scale.