Leveraging firm innovation performance through alliance portfolios in emerging economies: the role of absorptive capacity

T Diana L Van Aduard De Macedo-Soares Macedo-Soares,Hudson Lima Mendonça,Fábio De Oliveira Paula

doi:10.4067/s0718-27242017000400002

T Diana L Van Aduard De Macedo-Soares Macedo-Soares, Hudson Lima Mendonça + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-27242017000400002

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Abstract

Firms are increasingly engaging in alliance portfolios/networks – AP/Nets - to leverage their innovation performance –IP - and thus boost their competitiveness. Most studies, with a few exceptions especially from emerging countries, found a positive relationship between AP/Net and IP, depending on portfolio characteristics and firm absorptive capacity – AC. This article undertakes an empirical investigation of the AP/Net – IP relationship and AC´s potentially moderating role in this relationship in an emerging country: Brazil. Statistical testing of hypotheses regarding these relationships, and AC´s role, corroborated the exceptions. However, it confirmed how important it is that firms in an emerging country ensure a high level of AC to mitigate the negative effects of AP/Net diversity on IP. Some managerial and policy implications were also formulated.

Highlights

Open innovation (Chesbrough, 2003), defined as a concept according to which firms make use of internal and external knowledge to generate innovation, has become a necessity (Chesbrough, 2003; Dahlander & Gann, 2010; Laursen & Salter, 2006; Randhava, Wilden & Hohberger, 2016) to contend with increasingly complex technologies
Its objective was to answer the question: How do AP/Net characteristics of firms in developing/emerging countries in Latin America - in this specific case Brazil - impact their IP and how is this relationship influenced by firms AC?
The reports evidence an overall increase in innovation activities and innovation outputs in Brazilian firms, and even though Brazil is the 9th economy in the world in terms of GDP (Worldbank, 2017), the country was recently ranked 69th in the Global Innovation Index (Dutta, Lanvin & Wunsch-Vincent, 2016), which was worse than in 2014 when it occupied the 61th place (Dutta, Lanvin & Wunsch-Vincent, 2014)

Summary

Introduction

Open innovation (Chesbrough, 2003), defined as a concept according to which firms make use of internal and external knowledge to generate innovation, has become a necessity (Chesbrough, 2003; Dahlander & Gann, 2010; Laursen & Salter, 2006; Randhava, Wilden & Hohberger, 2016) to contend with increasingly complex technologies. In addition to dyadic partnerships, firms in various industries have established alliance portfolios in the scope of their innovation-oriented strategies. Participation in AP/Nets is considered important for firms that seek to increase their innovation performance - IP (Faems, Van Looy & Debackere, 2005; Duysters & Lokshin, 2011). 207); depending on the networks structure and access to resources it provides, it could be a “source of competitive advantage” (p.207). Based on his literature review, Wassmer (2008, p. 150) stated that “the configuration of a focal firms AP ...determines the quality, quantity, and diversity of information and resources to which the focal company has access”

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