Alliance Orientation Research Articles

The Effects of Supply Chain Alliance Orientation on Ambidextrous Innovation and Market Performance: A Multigroup Study of US and Korean Firms

This research explores the effects of supply chain alliance orientation on ambidextrous innovation and market performance with evidence from South Korean and US firms amid COVID-19. Three theories underpin the conceptual framework including the resource-based view, relational view, and ambidextrous innovation while psychosomatic items generate the variables: supply chain alliance orientation, exploration innovation, exploitation innovation, and market performance. Hypotheses are posed through a literature review. A multigroup analysis of 427 firms using MICOM with PLS-SEM is employed to reveal differences between South Korean and American companies. Here Korean firms generate ambidextrous innovation and market performance better than US firms. Mediation tests are also conducted. Implications are provided.

Linking Supply Chain Alliance Orientation to Market Performance: Evidence from South Korean Firms

Purpose - This research aims to provide a greater understanding of the constructs that aid in the mitigation of supply chain disruptions. Recent anomalies in the global supply chain have negatively influenced the performance of institutions throughout the globe. It is therefore advantageous to examine various antecedents of firm performance through the spectrum of supply chain management. To achieve this, an SOR framework was utilized for this study.
 Design/Methodology/Approach - A hypothesized model was developed to examine the relationship between the study constructs. The sample for this research comprised of 200 South Korean firms. Data were analyzed using Smart PLS-SEM analysis. All the constructs were analyzed through a SOR framework.
 Findings - Supply chain alliance orientation and supply chain resilience had a significantly positive effect on market performance. Likewise, it was found that supply chain dynamism encouraged supply chain alliance orientation in a supply chain. Further, the mediating effects of alliance orientation showed a positive effect on supply chain resilience and market performance. Similarly, supply chain resilience had a favorable mediating relationship between supply chain alliance orientation and market performance.
 Research Implications - The SOR framework can be used as model for understanding organizational behavior in the context of supply chain management. Also, the study findings suggest the importance of developing alliances to strengthen organizational operations during periods of supply chain disruptions.

The Impact of Alliance Orientation on Resource Complementarity: An Empirical Study on SMEs in Syria

This study examines the impact of alliance orientation on resource complementarity among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Syria. A sample of 310 managers was surveyed to investigate the correlation between these two constructs. Findings from a reliability analysis and regression indicate a positive and significant relationship, suggesting that a stronger alliance orientation facilitates more complementary resource allocation and utilization. This paper contributes to the body of literature on SMEs, alliance orientation, and resource complementarity, and provides practical insights for managers in Syria and other similar.

Does alliance orientation matter for new product success? An empirical study of Taiwanese electronics firms

PurposeFirms report varied levels of success in relation to using alliances to aid in new product development (NPD). This study aims to investigate internal processes that might influence the experience of alliance success. Specifically, this study investigates the role of mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying the alliance orientation (AO)–new product success relationship, while also investigating the impact of the level and consistency of AO. The primary goal is to understand the importance of a firm’s maintaining a consistent focus upon alliance scanning, coordination and learning.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted to collect data from 141 Taiwanese electronics companies. The proposed model and hypotheses were tested using path analysis in analysis of moment structures.FindingsAO improves the success of new products indirectly through the enhancement of product program innovativeness and NPD decision-making flexibility. The positive effect of AO on product program innovativeness and NPD decision-making flexibility is heightened when a firm consistently carries out a series of alliance management activities, including alliance scanning, coordination and learning. Market turbulence and the intensity of competition differentially affect the association between product program innovativeness and NPD decision-making flexibility and new product success.Research limitations/implicationsThe measures were self-reported and may result in the threat of common method bias. While this study focused upon protecting against and assessing this bias, collecting data from multiple sources would have helped to eliminate the bias. Further, the sample consisted of Taiwanese electronics firms. This makes it difficult to generalize this study’s findings to other industrial contexts.Practical implicationsWhile AO may be viewed as a dynamic capability, product program innovativeness and NPD decision-making flexibility represent competitive advantage in NPD program and process, respectively. Managers should not focus only on competitive advantage in NPD while overlooking the development of dynamic capabilities, as this study’s results demonstrate that both elements must work in tandem. AO is relevant at higher levels of the organizational hierarchy, while product program innovativeness and decision-making flexibility are operational, demanding cross-functional coordination and involvement within a firm. Senior executives ought to not only confirm the appropriate provision of their resources to activities and actions associated with product program innovativeness and decision-making flexibility in NPD but also continually monitor and assess whether the inputs of AO lead to desirable competitive advantage in the context of NPD.Originality/valueThis study sheds light on the underlying mechanism through which AO improves new product success. This research proposes two different aspects of AO, level and consistency, and empirically identifies their interactive effect in the context of NPD. The findings offer specific guidelines for the assessment and implementation of AO to improve new product success. Consistency, especially, has not been investigated in relation to alliance-generated new product success.

Divergent and Convergent Effects of Business Group Affiliation on Firm Performance in International Strategic Alliances

Business groups (BGs), a prevalent organizational form in many economies are exhibiting evolutionary fitness and are no longer considered an organizational anomaly. We extend the traditional debate around strategic choice and performance paradigm by assessing differential performance effects of BG affiliation in international strategic alliance (ISA) formation choices(alliance scope, alliance governance structure, and alliance orientation). This study integrates the resource-based view and institutional perspective to explore the initial divergence in performance of a BG affiliated firm (BGAF) and non-BG affiliated firm (NBGAF) leading towards convergence later when partner complementarity and institutional evolution shifts from lower to the higher end of the spectrum. Contrasting the effect of different ISA choices on firm’s performance the hypotheses were developed and tested on a panel dataset of 1816 ISAs formed by 224 BGAFs and 242 NBGAFs over a span of 19 years. Findings suggest that the influence of BG affiliation on firm’s performance is more pronounced when alliance scope is broader, alliance governance structure is contractual and alliance orientation is exploratory and that this divergence in performance between BGAFs and NBGAFs weakens as the alliance partner’s complementarity increases and institutions evolve in the economy.

Sustaining superior international performance: Strategic orientations and dynamic capability of environmentally concerned small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises

AbstractThis study examines the influence of strategic orientations and dynamic capability on the sustainable international performance of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Building on the dynamic capability perspective, we propose that the interaction between entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and alliance orientation (AO) facilitates dynamic capability and, in turn, the sustainable international performance of SMEs. Using survey data from 211 environmentally concerned SMEs in the United Arab Emirates, the study finds the significant effects of the interaction between EO and AO on dynamic capability. Further, the results support that dynamic capability mediates the interactive effect of EO and AO on international performance. The study shows that the SMEs benefit from balancing as well as pursuing two complementary strategic orientations (i.e., EO and AO) towards developing dynamic capability that contributes to making superior international performance.

문화요인이 제휴성과에 미치는 영향에 관한 비교연구: 한국 vs 미국기업을 대상으로

This paper analyze the moderating effect of cultural factors on performance and alliance strategy. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of national cultural factors and type of alliance orientation (technology-oriented alliance, market-oriented alliance) on alliance performance. To analyze this study, a survey was conducted on companies that have partnerships with foreign companies. To verify this research model, we collected data from international alliance companies. The research has shown that the national cultural factors have a significant impact on the type of alliance and the performance of companies. This study can provide meaningful implications for international companies to achieve better performance by identifying appropriate cultural traits and types of alliances for partnerships.

Effect of university-enterprise alliance orientation on university’s innovation performance and market performance: evidence from Vietnam

ABSTRACT The study seeks to explore the influence of university-enterprise collaboration orientation on university’s performance. Specifically, the study investigates the effects of alliance scanning, alliance coordination, and alliance learning on university’s innovative performance and market performance. The effects were tested on the sample of 191 managers of 37 universities in Vietnam with a survey. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used for testing these effects. The results show that all dimensions of alliance orientation including alliance scanning, alliance coordination, and alliance learning are significantly correlated with innovative performance. For market performance, only alliance coordination and alliance learning are significantly relevant to, but alliance scanning has a non-significant effect. As the pioneering study examing the effect of dimensions of university-enterprise alliance orientation on university’s innovative performance and market performance, this study extends the extant literature, particularly the modest research domain of university-enterprise cooperation. The study also added empirical evidence of Vietnamese context – an underexplored Asian developing context for studies of university-industry linkages which is vastly different from other contexts like developed Western economies. Furthermore, it offered a revised measure of market performance of university that will be useful for future research.

Intergroup alliance orientation among intermediate-status group members: The role of stability of social stratification.

Three studies have tested the hypothesis that intermediate-status groups are more oriented to ally with outgroups when their social position is under threat. In study 1, participants believed that their ingroup was intermediate in status and social stratification was manipulated as either stable or status-detrimental unstable. Results indicated that participants were more likely to seek alliances a) with a high-status group and b) when social stratification was status-detrimental unstable. Study 2 showed that participants were more likely to seek alliances with a lower status group when social stratification was status-detrimental unstable rather than stable, while they were supportive of policies helping disadvantaged groups regardless of the stability of social stratification. Study 3 showed that when social stratification was status-detrimental unstable, intermediate-status group members were more oriented to ally with a low-status group, equally supportive of policies helping disadvantaged groups, but less oriented to supplying direct help to a low-status group.

Entrepreneurial and alliance orientation alignment in new product development

Given different strategic logics and implications of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and alliance orientation (AO), this study develops an integrative model of an alignment between EO and AO in the context of new product development (NPD) and articulates the results of a study designed to examine its effects on a firm's NPD activities and performance outcomes. The authors empirically investigate the model through a cross-sectional survey of 141 Taiwanese electronics firms. Drawing from the coalignment perspective, these firms are distinguished into four strategic groups labeled as EO (high EO and low AO), AO (low EO and high AO), EA (high EO and high AO), and CO (low EO and low AO) firms. Empirical results suggest that the four groups of firms significantly differ in terms of NPD process characteristics (decision-making flexibility, market-focused learning, and internally focused learning), program characteristics (product program meaningfulness and newness), and performance outcome (new product success). Theoretical and managerial implications of the results are demonstrated.

Developing exploitative and exploratory capabilities through capitalising on alliance orientation

ABSTRACTResearchers suggest that firms should acquire resources from external environments by adopting alliances to enhance their abilities in developing their core value-creating capabilities. However, the question of how to manage alliances effectively through organisational development in exploitation and exploration capabilities has not yet been examined in detail. Using primary data obtained from 159 R&D managers in Taiwan's electronics industry, this study focuses on the specific mechanisms of alliance orientation (AO) and examines its impact on the development of exploitative and exploratory capabilities. We find that AO enables firms to improve their exploitative and exploratory capabilities. Furthermore, unabsorbed slack resources strengthen the positive effects of AO on exploratory capabilities, while market uncertainty weakens the benefits of AO in both exploitative and exploratory capabilities. The positive effects of AO on exploratory capabilities are also weakened by technological uncertainty. These findings provide strategic insight into strategic alliances and the capability development of firms.

The link between SMEs alliance portfolio diversity and top management’s entrepreneurial and alliance orientations

To be able to survive and grow in twenty-first century global network economies, small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) strive to develop various types of interfirm alliances that provide them with bundles of resources and network security. Therefore, creating and configuring a beneficial and diverse alliance portfolio has become an important strategic issue for SMEs. The purpose of this article is to investigate how the entrepreneurial orientation and alliance orientation of the SMEs’ top managements lead to functional diversity of alliance portfolio configurations. Based on resource dependency and upper echelons theories, this study develops a model using survey data from 230 managers of Australian SMEs. The results suggest a significant link between the SME top management’s strategic orientations and the diversity of their alliance portfolios. When both entrepreneurial orientation and alliance orientation are high, the firms prefer to form portfolios that are functionally diverse. On the other hand, when either one or both strategic orientations are low, firms prefer to form portfolios that specialize on one of the functional areas like operations, logistics, marketing, or strategic management.

Moderating roles of national culture for alliance relationship advantages and performance in Asia

ABSTRACTPurpose: Despite the fact that some studies examine the role of cultural attributes as determinants of successful alliance relationships, there has been lack of studies that explored how a firm’s orientation toward alliances, as a culture, might provide competitive advantages in the form of alliance relationship, which influences the firm’s performance. The current study therefore proposes a research model, in which alliance orientation as an intangible resource enhances the alliance relationship advantage, which eventually improves alliance performance, with national culture as a moderator.Design/methodology/approach: To test the hypotheses, responses were obtained from 145 South Korean and 123 Chinese firm samples. The proposed model was estimated using structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression analysis.Findings: The empirical study confirms that alliance orientation directly influences alliance relationship advantage, en route to alliance performance. When uncertainty avoidance is greater, the relationship between alliance relationship advantage and alliance performance grows weaker, whereas when masculinity and long-term orientation are greater, this relationship becomes enhanced.Research implications: Leveraging source–positional advantage–performance structures (Day and Wensley 1988), this study clarifies how alliance orientation influences a firm’s alliance relationship advantage as a positional advantage, which eventually enhances its alliance performance. Moderating effects of cultural factors arise between alliance orientation and alliance relationship advantage, thereby revealing the important, contingent role of cultural factors in managing the link between alliance orientations and competitive advantage.Practical implications: This study provides managerial guidelines for how firms operating in different countries such as Korea and China can manage their alliance orientation and alliance-related activities to enhance their competitive advantages and firm performance, by noting and accommodating different cultural characteristics.Originality/value/contribution: The proposed contingency model relies on the moderating role of national culture, reflected by uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and long-term orientation, to explain the relationships between alliance competitive advantages and alliance performance.

Innovate alone or with others? Influence of entrepreneurial orientation and alliance orientation on media business model innovation

ABSTRACTBeing able to innovate one’s business model has been a topic of paramount importance in media management research and practice. Recent studies suggest that the strategic orientation of a company is a central driver of business model innovation. However, empirical evidence is scarce. To fill this gap, we assess the impact of entrepreneurial and alliance orientation as two highly relevant strategic orientations with a quantitative survey of 50 companies. Our results show that a media company’s entrepreneurial orientation has positive effects on its ability to innovate value creation and value proposition, but not on its ability to capture that value. In addition, we could not find significant results indicating that being alliance oriented is beneficial for business model innovation.

Exploring the impact of firm- and relationship-specific factors on alliance performance: Evidence from Turkey

This study investigates the impact of firm-specific (i.e., alliance orientation and partner selection criteria) and relationship-specific (i.e., strategic fit, cultural fit, and organizational fit) factors on alliance performance and assesses the mediating role of trust in the relationship between relationship-specific factors and alliance performance. Partial least squares analysis is applied to a data set of 106 strategic alliances, including both equity alliances (joint ventures) and non-equity alliances (contractual alliances). The empirical results reveal that alliance orientation and strategic fit lead to superior alliance performance and that cultural fit is positively related to partner trustworthiness. The results have managerial implications regarding how to maximize the positive outcomes of an alliance.

Review and Support of the Relationship between Alliance Competence and Alliance Orientation

Review and Support of the Relationship between Alliance Competence and Alliance Orientation

A Study on the Moderating Effect on Cultural Difference of Knowledge Transfer and Alliance Strategy

The purpose of this study is to analyze the moderating effect of cultural diversity on knowledge transfer and alliance strategy. To analyze this objective, which do international business and have partnership were surveyed. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of national cultural dimension and type of alliance orientation (scanning alliance, utilization alliance) on alliance performance of knowledge transfer. To analyze this objective, we conducted a survey in target companies which signed partnership and international business. This study reviews various literatures and developed a research model. To examine the research model, we collected data from international companies with partnerships. The study results showed that the national cultural factor significantly affects the alliance types and firm’s performance. It can provide a very meaningful implication where companies decide on alliance strategies by considering cultural environments in overseas countries in order to achieve better performance of knowledge transfer. Moreover, it can provide a very meaningful implication where international firms achieve better performance identifying the core competencies between cultural characteristics and alliance type on suitable for the partnership.

Analysis on the Effects of National Cultural Dimension to Alliance Orientation and Firm's Performance

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of national cultural dimension and type of alliance orientation (scanning alliance, utilization alliance) on alliance performance. To analyze this objective, we conducted a survey in target companies which signed partnership and international business. This study reviews various literatures and developed a research model. To examine the research model, we collected data from international companies with partnerships. The study results showed that national culture and type of alliance orientation have a significant effect on the alliance performance. Moreover, it can provide a very meaningful implication where international firms achieve better performance identifying the core competencies between cultural characteristics and alliance orientation suitable for the partnership.

Learning in coopetition: Alliance orientation, network size, and firm types

Coopetition can provide access to competitors' valuable knowledge. However, coopetition has high opportunism risks; therefore, firms aim to protect their own knowledge against leakage and prevent coopetitors' leveraging their knowledge. This study examines how the firm's alliance orientation and its network size influence the leveraging of knowledge (inlearning) gained from a coopetitor. A survey of 366 firms in the medical device industry shows that firms achieve inlearning from a coopetitor only through both a high alliance orientation and a greater number of alliance partners. The study reveals two firm types according to how firms achieve inlearning using coopetition.

The mediating role of alliance marketing program creativity on the relationship between alliance orientation and market performance in the services industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the validity of the already suggested positive relationship between marketing alliance orientation and market performance in a service context, and to investigate the mediating role of alliance marketing program creativity (AMPC) in the relationship in detail. Design/methodology/approach – To empirically test the hypotheses, a mail survey was conducted among firms with experience of service alliances in South Korea. A 725 research sample was selected (128 responded) from a database compiled by the Korea Investors Service-Financial Analysis System which provides comprehensive corporate and financial information on firms listed on the Korea Stock Exchange. partial least squares analysis was performed to test the hypotheses. Findings – Alliance orientation positively associated with market performance (H1), alliance orientation had a significantly positive effect on alliance marketing program meaningfulness and novelty (H2), and in turn, alliance marketing program meaningfulness and novelty had a significantly positive effect on market performance (H3). In terms of the determination of mediation type, full, or partial, the authors confirmed that the relationship between alliance orientation and market performance was fully mediated by AMPC (novelty and meaningfulness), by finding that the significantly reduced direct effect from alliance orientation to market performance in the mediation model. Research limitations/implications – Alliance marketing program meaningfulness and novelty perform the role of full mediators, implying that the meaningfulness, and novelty of AMPC are absolutely indispensable conditions in order for alliance orientation to lead market performance. Moreover, different from the previous studies, the research suggests that alliance marketing program meaningfulness and novelty are equally important antecedents of market performance. Originality/value – The positive relationship between alliance orientation and market performance in the service context was empirically tested, and the full mediating role of AMPC was confirmed. The importance of AMPC in the service context is highlighted.