Novel Value Configurations and Business Model Divergence in Dyadic R&D Alliances

Abstract

The revised dynamic relational view suggests that alliances in general and R&D alliances in particular offer complementarities and learning for the involved firms. We argue that considerable changes to a firm’s business model are more likely to spillover from mutual R&D alliances if managers pay greater attention to these R&D alliances—even more so if collaborating firms operate in overlapping markets. Firms that pursue joint R&D in overlapping markets share basic assumptions and core knowledge regarding the markets’ demand drivers. We model and test how the degree of market overlap in a sample of N=604 high-tech firms that formed N=302 independent dyadic R&D alliances can result in novel value configurations that trigger a relative divergence of firm-level business models. In detail, market overlap unfolds an inverted U-shaped relationship with novel value configurations. This curvilinear effect is dependent on the presence of prior and the expectation of future relationships with the dyadic alliance partner. Furthermore, we find that the novel value configurations subsequently result in firm-level divergence of the collaborating firms’ business models. In summary, serving a common market while enabling firms to understand better one another can trigger novel value configurations and facilitate more distinct—diverging—firm-level business models.