Alliance Diversity Research Articles

Strategic Alliances in Global Health: Innovative Perspectives in the Era of Sustainable Development.

This article discusses current challenges in the field of global health and the World Health Organization's (WHO) strategies to address them. It highlights the importance of measuring the health impacts of global recession and globalization and the need for human-centered approaches to sustainable development. Emphasis is placed on commitment to health equity and the use of strategic partnerships for health at global, national, and local levels. Improving the health and well-being of populations, as well as public health equity, are core principles of the 2030 Agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These principles are expressed in SDG 3, which promotes universal access to health services and systems and recognizes global health as a basic human right. It highlights the importance of strategic partnerships to combat emerging health crises, improve public health indices, and address the burden of chronic disease. These partnerships are contemplated in SDG 17 and are manifested in different modalities, such as network governance, cross-sector collaboration, public-private partnership, and social participation. This diversity of alliances has played an important role in scaling up and strengthening universal health systems around the world, including in Latin America and the Caribbean. The text concludes by presenting the essential characteristics of these inter-organizational and inter-institutional alliances in the field of global health.

지식경계 확장이 혁신성과에 미치는 영향: 제휴 유형의 조절효과

This study aims to explore the impacts of international alliance diversity on innovation performance and the moderating effects of the types of alliances (i.e. horizontal or vertical). Based on the research stream that views alliances as a knowledge boundary expansion mechanism, this study suggests that the international alliance diversity has a positive effect on innovation performance, and that the alliance types moderate the relationship between international alliance diversity and innovation performance. The empirical analysis of the Korean pharmaceutical biotechnology firms generally supports our arguments.

The Impact of Alliance Diversity on Internationalization Performance: The Mediating Role of Alliance Governance Structure Diversity

The Impact of Alliance Diversity on Internationalization Performance: The Mediating Role of Alliance Governance Structure Diversity

Political Risk and Alliance Diversity: A Two-Stage Model of Partner Selection in Multipartner Alliances

We examine how political risk influences partner selection in multipartner alliances, and consequently their diversity. We propose a two-stage theoretical model—first, a lead firm is selected to le...

Multi-Partner Alliance Diversity and Performance: The Dilemma of Value Creation and Appropriation

We systematically examine multi-partner alliance diversity and its performance consequences at both a multi-partner alliance level as well as at the partner firm level in the context of technologic...

Casting a Wide Net for Innovation: Mediating Effect of R&D Human and Social Capital to Unlock the Value from Alliance Portfolio Diversity

AbstractThis paper examines the performance effects associated with different alliance portfolio configurations in terms of geographical location and partner type. Based on these distinctions, the authors hypothesize that more diverse alliance portfolios enable firms to gain and exploit innovation opportunities. Additionally, the mediating effects of R&D human and social capital on the R&D alliance portfolio diversity–innovation performance relationship are explored. The authors reason that the absorptive capacity of R&D intellectual capital determines a firm's potential gains from highly diverse alliance portfolios. From panel data of manufacturing firms in Spain for the period 2008–2013, the results confirm the inverted U‐shaped relationship between alliance portfolio diversity and firm innovation performance, implying that both insufficient and excessive alliance portfolio diversity may be detrimental to firm innovativeness. Additionally, R&D human and social capital partially mediates the R&D alliance diversity–innovation performance relationship, emphasizing the importance of internal capabilities to leverage the benefits of highly diverse alliance portfolios. These findings add a dynamic dimension to the conceptualization of alliance portfolios and how firms create value by balancing explorative and exploitative alliances.

The Effect of R&D Alliance Diversity and Network Position on Firm Innovation Performance: Evidence from the Emerging Biotechnology Industry

Despite increasing attention to the role of diverse alliances in emerging market, few studies have explicitly explored the roles of environment and network position on diverse R&D alliances. This study investigates how environment and network position interact with diverse R&D alliances to affect firm innovation performance. Specifically, we examine the moderating effects of technology uncertainty, market uncertainty, network centrality position and competitive intensity. The findings from a survey of 144 biotechnology firms indicate that diverse R&D alliances have a positive effect on firms’ innovation performance, and these effects are moderated by environmental factors and alliance network position. The overall R&D alliance network was also examined to understand a broad variety of collaboration patterns of emerging biotechnology firms.

Absorptive Capacity and Ambidexterity in R&D: Linking Technology Alliance Diversity and Firm Innovation

AbstractThe aim of this study is to examine how firms realize the benefits associated with a diverse range of technology alliances. We propose and test the hypothesis that firms’ knowledge combinative capabilities mediate the relationship between technology alliance diversity and innovation. Using panel data for Spanish manufacturing companies during the period 2004–2011, we provide evidence that firms’ absorptive capacity and ambidexterity in R&D serve as mediating mechanisms between technology alliance diversity and innovative performance. Our study advances the literature on technology alliances by showing how firms use their portfolios of technology alliances to form their combinative capabilities, and subsequently, to enhance innovation outcomes.

Coping with Diversity in Alliances for Innovation: The Role of Relational Social Capital and Knowledge Codifiability

Alliances are increasingly considered a key element for innovation, especially in knowledge‐intensive firms. While this is true, the mere membership to alliances does not explain innovation performance, and thus the alliance's characteristics that determine high performance must be examined. This research address the question of how the diversity of partners in a certain alliance for innovation affects innovation performance, and how this influence can be moderated by certain characteristics, such as the relational dimension of social capital and the type of knowledge shared among partners. The empirical analysis of a sample of 90 biotech companies shows that there is an inverted U‐shaped relationship between alliance partner diversity and innovation performance and confirms the positive moderating effects of relational social capital and knowledge codifiability. These findings contribute to the current research on alliances for innovation by providing empirical evidence on why some alliances perform better than others. Also, the results suggest that the study of alliance partner diversity, as a determinant of alliance performance, should not be addressed in isolation.

Lógicas de espacialização missionária e agendas da cooperação internacional: uma perspectiva multissituada a partir de ações junto aos povos indígenas

Resumo O artigo discute processos de espacialização de missões religiosas de origem protestante ecumênica que atuam junto aos índios, entendendo-os como parte dos mecanismos contemporâneos de formação do Estado e de gestão de territórios e populações. Busca complexificar as interpretações sobre a relação das missões com mecanismos coloniais e pós-coloniais de dominação, explorando a pluralidade de motivações, de formação de alianças e de sentidos veiculados por elas em diferentes espaços geográficos e períodos de tempo. Para isso, examina quatro casos, na Coreia do Sul, Noruega, Argentina e Brasil, analisando os nexos das missões com redes locais e transnacionais de apoio, notadamente no campo do desenvolvimento, dialogando com as discussões metodológicas na antropologia sobre as etnografias multissituadas.

Partner Geographic and Organizational Proximity and the Innovative Performance of Knowledge‐Creating Alliances

We adopt a knowledge‐based perspective to investigate the individual and interaction effects of partner geographic and organizational proximity on the innovative performance of knowledge‐creating alliances. Our econometric analysis on a sample of 1,515 interfirm dyadic knowledge‐creating R&D alliances shows that both geographic distance between allied firms and their affiliation with the same business group negatively affect the alliance innovative performance. However, when jointly considered, the two examined partner characteristics positively moderate each other's effect on alliance innovative performance, so revealing a complementary effect on it. We argue that, while the existence of group ties between geographically distant organizations reduces the negative influence of geographic distance on the partners' ability to integrate their knowledge within the alliance, collaborating with remote partners weakens the negative influence of the existence of group ties between partners on knowledge diversity in alliances. We conclude that geographic distance and organizational proximity are contingent upon one another in their effect on the innovative performance of knowledge‐creating alliances and that distance (proximity) in one dimension can be bridged (overcome) by proximity (distance) in another dimension.

Absorptive capacity and ambidexterity in R&D: linking tech-alliance diversity and firm innovation

The aim of this study is to examine how firms realize the benefits associated with a diverse range of technology alliances. To do so, this research proposes and tests the hypothesis that the firms’ combinative capabilities mediate the relationship between technology alliance diversity and a firm’s innovative performance. Using a panel of Spanish manufacturing companies for the period 2004-2011, the findings provide evidence to indicate that the firm’s absorptive capacity and its ambidexterity in R&D are two combinative capabilities that serve as mediating mechanisms between technology alliance diversity and innovation, as measured by the firm’s propensity to make new product introductions. The study advances the literature on technology alliances by showing how firms use their networks of technology alliances to form their combinative capabilities and subsequently to enhance their prospects to generate innovations.

Mitigating the limited scalability of bootstrapping through strategic alliances to enhance new venture growth

Although the benefits of bootstrapping are widely known, decreasing returns to venture growth from this strategy are less understood; falls in returns. Decreasing returns may result from limited scalability and increased costs resulting from reduced legitimacy among stakeholders. Using a sample of high-technology firms, this article tests the non-linear relationship between bootstrapping and venture growth and the moderating effects of alliances on this non-linear relationship. We find that bootstrapping has an inverted-U relationship with venture growth; however, alliance diversity enhances the positive effects of bootstrapping while mitigating its negative effects on venture growth.

THE INFLUENCE OF WASTEWATER SUBSIDY, FLOOD DISTURBANCE AND NEIGHBOURING LAND USE ON CURRENT AND HISTORICAL PATTERNS OF RIPARIAN VEGETATION IN A SEMI‐ARID WATERSHED

ABSTRACTRiparian systems are among the most diverse and most threatened ecosystems in the western USA and consequently the focus of much conservation and restoration effort. Detailed mapping of existing riparian vegetation and quantitative description of historical riparian dynamics can inform and direct ecosystem conservation and restoration efforts. Using historical aerial photography, satellite imagery and field methods, we examine and compare historical riparian vegetation dynamics within catchments of varying land‐use/water‐use intensity along a 51‐km stretch of the Santa Cruz River in Arizona, USA. We mapped current (2006–2007) vegetation to a formation class level (dominant life form) through aerial photo‐interpretation and refined the map to an alliance level (dominant species) with extensive field data. We mapped historical vegetation to the formation level using six dates of aerial photography (1936–2004) and quantified rates of land‐use and vegetation change over the 70‐year period with spatial analysis techniques. Our results indicate that the current amount, distribution and diversity of vegetation alliances are linked to effluent supply. Sites receiving effluent since 1972 experienced a rapid increase in area of riparian forest and woodland from 1984 to 2004, followed by retrogression to herbaceous‐dominated types from 2004 to 2006, the result of an extensive cottonwood tree die‐off. Sites with no effluent subsidy are currently dominated by a mixture of riparian shrub and non‐native herbaceous alliances but tend to have higher overall alliance diversity and exhibit more stability over time. These results suggest that the use of effluent for riparian restoration may have variable long‐term effects depending on catchment land‐use history. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Alliance diversity, environmental context and the value of manufacturing capabilities among new high technology ventures

Manufacturing capabilities have often been shown to predict various indicators of firm performance. However, the association between manufacturing capabilities and firm performance has seldom been studied in the context of high technology new ventures. Using a sample of 167 UK-based, high technology manufacturing ventures, the current study examines the relationship between manufacturing capabilities (in particular, those contributing to low operating costs and product quality) and venture performance. Additionally, the moderating effects of the ventures’ alliance portfolios and environmental contexts on the capability–performance relationships are explored. Results indicate that venture performance (as reflected in sales growth, return on sales (ROS), and return on assets (ROA)) is significantly predicted by manufacturing capabilities that promote low operating costs and product quality. Further, the data generally support the hypothesized moderating effects of two alliance diversity variables (alliance partner diversity and alliance geographic diversity) and two environmental context variables (environmental dynamism and environmental munificence) on the capability–performance relationships. Overall, the study supports the premise that the value of manufacturing capabilities (i.e., the strength of the capability–performance relationship) among high technology ventures is contingent upon the alliance and environmental contexts within which those ventures operate. Specifically, alliance partner diversity, alliance geographic diversity, and environmental munificence enhance the value of manufacturing capabilities that promote low operating costs. Alliance partner diversity, environmental munificence, and environmental stability enhance the value of manufacturing capabilities that promote product quality. The study's theoretical and practical implications are discussed.