Knowledge Transfer In Alliances Research Articles

The link between technical knowledge transfer in alliances and resource efficiency: ambidexterity in development of R&D and appropriation capabilities

The link between technical knowledge transfer in alliances and resource efficiency: ambidexterity in development of R&D and appropriation capabilities

New product creativity and alliance ambidexterity: the moderating effect of causal ambiguity

Purpose There has been little research discussing the role that new product creativity plays in achieving alliance ambidexterity and how causal ambiguity may be a potential moderator in the association between new product creativity and alliance ambidexterity. The purpose of this study is to identify the contingent role of causal ambiguity and examine the relationships between new product creativity, causal ambiguity and alliance ambidexterity. Design/methodology/approach In this empirical study, a questionnaire approach is used to collect data, and moderated structural equation modeling is used to test the hypotheses. Findings The findings indicate that new product creativity has a positive influence on alliance ambidexterity, whereas causal ambiguity moderates these associations. When causal ambiguity increases, the positive impact of new product creativity on alliance ambidexterity is attenuated. Research limitations/implications This study integrates the ambidexterity literature and the alliance literature by applying the concept of ambidexterity to a strategic alliance context. The moderating role of causal ambiguity echoes previous research postulating causal ambiguity as a barrier to knowledge transfer in alliances. Given a higher level of causal ambiguity, firms face more difficulty when they attempt to develop new product creativity to achieve the desired level of alliance ambidexterity. Practical implications Managers could initiate incentive programs and build supportive environments that facilitate new product creativity. Firms will be capable of elaborating the potential of new product creativity to further facilitate alliance ambidexterity. Managers need to pay attention to causal ambiguity that may have a moderating influence on the relationship between new product creativity and alliance ambidexterity. Originality/value This study contributes to the synthesis of new product creativity and alliance ambidexterity and helps scholars and managers to better understand the moderating effect of causal ambiguity in the context of the innovation and ambidexterity literature.

Interfirm Alliance Interactions and Knowledge Learning : A Conceptual Research Model

Alliance raises many knowledge transfer and interfirm learning issues that have implications for how the alliance partners manage their cooperative learning activities in the alliance system. Many of these implications are grounded in the assumption that partners in the alliances have routines for transferring knowledge, learning, gaining management efficiencies. Thus organisations can support knowledge flow, learning, sharing and even developing with technology and management practices in alliances. This paper introduces a conceptual research model of knowledge transfer within learning IJVs. Based on the review of the literature, this paper identified each category relevant to the research model of knowledge transfer in alliances and proposed several research questions when considering the particular characteristics of knowledge transfer and learning process as an additional way of looking at cooperative relationships. The purpose was to illustrate the importance of interfirm knowledge transfer in IJVs and relevant knowledge transfer barriers and facilitating mechanisms and knowledge transfer stages for alliance partners faced with the new knowledge environments. It justifies the constructs and identifies the interrelationships among these concepts through proposing a framework of interfirm knowledge transfer and organisational learning in IJVs.

Knowledge transfer in alliances: the moderating role of the alliance type

We analyse how the impact of determinants of inter-firm knowledge transfers in alliances can be moderated by the proximity of the resources pooled by partners. Six factors are examined: relative absorptive capacity (RAC), inter-partner trust, cultural distance between allies, knowledge ambiguity, knowledge protection, and the partners’ learning intent. We distinguish alliances mobilizing similar resources by partners (called ‘endogamies’ as allies build on their similarities) from alliances pooling different resources (called ‘exogamies’ as allies build on their differences). We propose that: (a) the impact of RAC on knowledge transfers is reinforced in exogamies, but reduced in endogamies; (b) the knowledge ambiguity and cultural distance effect is less in endogamies than in exogamies; (c) the trust and knowledge protection impact is stronger in exogamies than in endogamies; (d) the learning intent impact on knowledge transfers is similar in endogamies and exogamies.

Knowledge transfer, governance mechanisms in alliance and environmental uncertainty

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to identify the relationship between knowledge transfer characteristics in alliance and alliance governance mechanisms, the influence of alliance governance mechanisms on knowledge transfer consequences and investigate the role of environmental uncertainty in knowledge transfer of alliance.Design/methodology/approach– Survey data were collected mainly in high-tech industries of China, the firms in which often establish alliance for the purpose of learning and knowledge transfer often takes place in that alliance. Finally, 293 usable samples were included in subsequent analysis. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine the hypotheses.Findings– The extent of relational (/formal) governance mechanism used in alliance has a stronger positive relationship with the extent of tacit (/explicit) knowledge transfer in alliance than with the extent of explicit (/tacit) knowledge transfer in alliance between them; environmental uncertainty impairs relational governance mechanisms and enhances formal governance mechanisms used in alliance; both relational and formal governance mechanisms could facilitate knowledge transfer in alliance; environmental uncertainty hinders knowledge transfer and negatively moderates the relationship between alliance governance mechanisms and knowledge transfer.Originality/value– This paper finds the relationship between knowledge transfer in alliance and alliance governance mechanisms, and the role of environmental uncertainty, providing managers with direct implications about how to manage alliance with different knowledge transfer characteristics for the purpose of facilitating knowledge transfer in alliance; provides managers more details about the dark side of the environmental uncertainty in knowledge transfer, also reminds public policy-makers paying enough attention for the improvement of institutional environment to deal with uncertainty.

Governing Committees and Knowledge Transfers in R&D Alliances

This research departs from the prior alliance governance research by showing that nonequity forms also embed administrative controls, and such controls affect the knowledge transfers between partners. Such administrative controls often take the form of board- like joint committees with well-defined authority over the activities of the alliance. We not only illuminate the administrative dimension of nonequity alliances, but also demonstrate its role in knowledge transfer in alliances. By showing the direct knowledge transfer implications of administrative structures it extends alliance governance research beyond the implications of equity-nonequity dichotomy to consider the wider gamut of governance instruments. Second, this research lends support to the argument that administrative controls are critical for mitigating appropriation hazards.

Knowledge transfer and performance in Danish-Ghanaian strategic alliances

Although knowledge transfer within international strategic alliances has attracted plenty of scholarly attention, there is a paucity of research about the knowledge transfer process, the type of knowledge transferred, and the impact of the transferred knowledge on alliance performance, especially within developed?developing country-based strategic alliances. Using a knowledge transfer and performance model, this paper investigates how Danish companies transfer knowledge to their Ghanaian counterparts, the type of knowledge transferred, and the impact of the transferred knowledge on the performance of the alliances. The study adopted a multiple case study approach and collected data through personal interviews. The study found that Danish partners transferred mostly technical or coded knowledge through on-the-job training, a method unsuitable for transferring tacit or management knowledge. Moreover, the transferred knowledge did not positively impact the performance of most of the alliances. The paper highlights the implications of the findings for managing knowledge transfer in alliances.

Knowledge transfer in alliances: determinant factors

Purpose – Resource‐and knowledge‐based authors claim that firms should focus on the creation and accumulation of knowledge‐based competencies in order to yield long‐term survival. Several authors have emphasized the added value of alliance relationships in the knowledge development and learning processes of organizations. Over the past decades, thanks to the opportunities provided by the inter‐firm co‐operations for knowledge transfer, knowledge access and learning, strategic alliances have become one of the most useful organizational forms for developing new knowledge for firms. The purpose of this paper is to identify and classify factors affecting knowledge transfer in strategic alliances.Design/methodology/approach – First, knowledge‐related issues in strategic alliance literature are reviewed. Second, the importance of recognizing factors affecting knowledge transfer through strategic alliances is considered. Finally, the paper suggests a classification of factors in a bibliographical manner, which s...

An Examination of Collaboration and Knowledge Transfer: China–Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park

abstract This paper examines alliance knowledge transfer using a case study of the China–Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), an alliance involving the Chinese and Singaporean governments, their agencies, and various private sector organizations. The objective is to extend existing knowledge in the alliance learning area and provide deeper understanding of some process‐oriented aspects of alliance learning performance. We found that tacit knowledge was particularly difficult to transfer and that issues involving collaborative interactions between the partners both facilitated and impeded knowledge transfer. We also found that competitive learning occurred, which impacted the partner relationship and knowledge transfer.

Strategic alliances and interfirm knowledge transfer

AbstractThis paper examines interfirm knowledge transfers within strategic alliances. Using a new measure of changes in alliance partners' technological capabilities, based on the citation patterns of their patent portfolios, we analyze changes in the extent to which partner firms' technological resources ‘overlap’ as a result of alliance participation. This measure allows us to test hypotheses from the literature on interfirm knowledge transfer in alliances, with interesting results: we find support for some elements of this ‘received wisdom’—equity arrangements promote greater knowledge transfer, and ‘absorptive capacity’ helps explain the extent of technological capability transfer, at least in some alliances. But the results also suggest limits to the ‘capabilities acquisition’ view of strategic alliances. Consistent with the argument that alliance activity can promote increased specialization, we find that the capabilities of partner firms become more divergent in a substantial subset of alliances.