International R&D Network Embeddedness as a Driver of International Commercialization

Abstract

This paper examines the implications of new ventures’ early internationalization. More specifically we investigate how interorganizational relationships and network embeddedness resulting from the formation of international and national research and development alliances facilitate the subsequent formation of international marketing and distribution agreements. We argue that the type of alliance partner with whom a firm has international research and development ties impact on subsequent internationalization attempts. We also focus on the effects of international research and development relationships at different levels of analysis, i.e. the effects of direct relationships and global network embeddedness as well as the role of network centrality. We test our hypotheses on the complete population of German biotechnology firms from 1996- 2012. The findings of our longitudinal event history analysis confirm that direct and indirect ties with commercial and research-intensive international alliance partners differently impact the likelihood of forming international marketing and research alliances. Moreover, our results show that network centrality moderates the influence of indirect ties in different ways.