Beyond the Scope of the Deal: Configuration of Technology Alliance Portfolios and the Introduction of Management Innovation

Isabel Estrada,Haibo Zhou

doi:10.1111/1467-8551.12488

Isabel Estrada, Haibo Zhou

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12488

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Abstract

AbstractWhile firms invest in portfolios of technology alliances primarily seeking technological benefits (e.g. access to novel technological knowledge to develop product innovations), an adequate portfolio of technology alliances can also bring non‐technological benefits, such as access to novel managerial knowledge, which can result in management innovation. However, it remains unclear under what conditions technology alliance portfolios yield such benefits. Drawing from the literature on knowledge utilization from alliance portfolios, we examine how the configuration of a firm's technology alliance portfolio affects the likelihood of the firm introducing management innovation. Our panel data analyses of Spanish manufacturing firms for 2008–2016 reveal that a firm is more likely to introduce management innovation when its alliance portfolio shows diversity of partner types; however, this positive effect of diversity becomes less pronounced as the alliance portfolio becomes more oriented towards exploration (i.e. relatively greater presence of research‐focused partner types). Our study also provides recommendations for managers seeking to connect the technological and non‐technological spheres of innovation: a technological alliance portfolio that brings together diverse partner types while avoiding excessive presence of research‐focused partner types may offer greater opportunity for management innovation.

Highlights

Building an adequate technology alliance portfolio – a firm’s set of concurrent technologyThe authors appreciate comments received on earlier versions of this paper from Pedro de Faria, Florian Noseleit, participants at the 20th IPDM Conference, the I&O Seminar Series University of Groningen, the Seminar Series Hitotsubashi University, the XXV ACEDE Conference, the 75th AoM Annual Meeting and the Euram 2019 Conference-CENA track
We address this research limitation by examining the connections between technology alliance portfolios and a prominent kind of nontechnological innovation known as management innovation (Birkinshaw, Hamel and Mol, 2008; Damanpour, Sanchez-Henriquez and Chiu, 2018) – that is, ‘the implementation of a new organisational method in the firm’s business practices, workplace organisation or external relations [...] that has not been used before in the firm and is the result of strategic decisions taken by management’ (OECD/Eurostat, 2005: 51)
Our study contributes to the literature on knowledge utilization from alliance portfolios by (i) redirecting attention from the technological towards the non-technological implications of technology alliance portfolios and broadening the spectrum of innovation outcomes studied by focusing on management innovation; and (ii) suggesting specific portfolio configuration conditions – diversity of partner types with greater emphasis on firm–firm collaboration relative to collaboration with research-focused partner types, under which technology alliance portfolios may be more likely to contribute to the introduction of management innovation

Summary

Introduction

Building an adequate technology alliance portfolio – a firm’s set of concurrent technologyThe authors appreciate comments received on earlier versions of this paper from Pedro de Faria, Florian Noseleit, participants at the 20th IPDM Conference, the I&O Seminar Series University of Groningen, the Seminar Series Hitotsubashi University, the XXV ACEDE Conference, the 75th AoM Annual Meeting and the Euram 2019 Conference-CENA track. Studies in the aforementioned stream view alliance portfolios as repositories from which the focal firm can source innovation-relevant knowledge that is not available in-house, helping alleviate internal resource constraints (Subramanian and Soh, 2017; Vasudeva and Anand, 2011). These studies further stress that, to understand when optimal knowledge utilization from alliance portfolios occurs, it is key to look at how these portfolios are configured, as this determines both the nature of knowledge a firm can source from its alliance partners (Garcia Martinez, Zouaghi and Sanchez Garcia, 2019; Hoffmann, 2007) and the firm’s ability to effectively utilize such knowledge towards enhancing innovation performance (Vasudeva and Anand, 2011; Wassmer, 2010)

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