Portfolio Of Partners Research Articles

Geographic proximity to socially dominant partners and firms' innovation outcomes: Empirical evidence from the medical device industry

AbstractSocially dominant partners offer key innovation resources as actors with socially legitimate power, and firms can utilise the geographic proximity to such partners to increase partnership benefits. We examine the impact of geographic proximity to socially dominant partners on firms' innovation outcomes when firms collaborate with partners under varying partnership conditions (i.e., partners' capabilities, partner portfolio size and the presence of local intermediaries) using the Korean implantable medical device industry as a case study. The study found that firms' innovation outcomes increase when teaming up with nearby socially dominant partners if firms collaborate with strongly capable partners and many of them. In contrast, if firms collaborate with less‐capable partners and only a few of them, firms' innovation outcomes increase when partnering with distant socially dominant partners. Moreover, such outcomes also increase when they collaborate with distant socially dominant partners and intermediaries are present in the firms' regions. The study offers theoretical contributions to the extant literature on power imbalance and economic geography regarding inter‐organisational relations.

Maintaining Warp Speed: Policy Requirements for a Just-in-Time, Capability-Based, Scalable Medical Countermeasure Research and Development Enterprise.

Maintaining Warp Speed: Policy Requirements for a Just-in-Time, Capability-Based, Scalable Medical Countermeasure Research and Development Enterprise.

Ressourcenpartnerschaften für mehr Rohstoffsicherheit

Abstract The transformation of the European industry toward climate-neutral technologies is creating a variety of new resource needs. Current supply routes are prone to disruption and threatened by increasing scarcity. Through the instrument of Strategic Resource Partnerships, the EU aims to build alternative supply chains that meet European needs for greater supply security and higher environmental standards by cooperating with selected third countries. To counter the risk of long-term instability in partnerships, the EU needs to provide sustainable growth perspectives, especially to low-income partner countries. The partner portfolio should be managed by the EU holistically according to risk-return aspects, with a focus on the right degree of supply route redundancy. A prerequisite is permanent monitoring based on, among other things, an expanded system of risk indicators.

Multilevel Antecedents of Organizational Speed: The Exemplary Case of a Small Italian R&D Organization

The COVID-19 outbreak has compelled many organizations to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. In this context, the aim of this article is to unveil how a small R&D organization has been able to rapidly take advantage of the opportunities offered by the COVID-19 outbreak and to understand the factors that have enabled organizational speed. Results of the qualitative analysis of this exemplary single case show that a combination of factors at the individual level (i.e., characteristics of the CEO and collaborators), organizational level (i.e., structure, resources, operative systems and processes, culture), and partner level (i.e., characteristics of the partner portfolio) is required to go through a very fast recognition–decision–execution process.

Nonprofit organizations and social-alliance portfolio size: Evidence from website content analysis

Business-Nonprofit Partnership (BNP) has been widely regarded as a vital approach for public value creation and social innovation. At the same time, many studies show a positive association between the size of an organization's portfolio of partners and its overall performance and innovation. Building on these insights, we contribute to the BNP literature by drawing on the relational view to theorize and empirically examine the conditions that underpin the effectiveness of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) in establishing collaborative linkages with the private sector (i.e. to determine the size of their portfolio of business partners). Data were compiled from the websites of NPOs (n = 102) that were collaborating with FTSE 100 companies. The results of regression analysis show that the ability of NPOs to deliver economic rent (to business partners) and to establish calculative trust (pre-collaboration trust) is positively associated with their portfolio size. Furthermore, the results indicate that the ability to create social value is also positively associated with portfolio size but only for larger NPOs, and that the delivery of collaboration options is negatively associated with portfolio size. We discuss these findings in relation to their implications for research and practice.

The Role of Universities in Inter-organizational Knowledge Collaborations

Organizations collaborate with external actors in order to acquire knowledge resources they cannot develop internally for economic and/or technical reasons. Mode 2 and Triple Helix models have examined the role of different organizational types in collaborative creation and knowledge use. This paper is an empirical investigation on whether universities differ from business-oriented or industrial organization types with regard to the extent of their knowledge collaborations. Using SEM methodology, it demonstrates the role of universities in knowledge collaboration through a survey of 472 organizations in the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development of the European Commission, Energy theme (FP7-Energy). In line with the Triple Helix model, universities are found to exhibit more extensive knowledge collaboration than businesses. Also, between-university collaborations are found to be more extensive knowledge collaboration relationship types than between-business relationships. The findings imply that (1) publically funded consortia should be aware that universities are more conducive and hence more effective in inter-organizational knowledge collaboration networks than other organizational types, particularly compared to for-profit business organizations. Universities should be included in these consortia. (2) Business organizations that do not have an extensive relationship with universities need to reconsider their partner portfolio and extend the knowledge collaboration of their network by connecting to more universities.(3) Policymakers should not only involve academic organizations but also include groups of more than one university per consortium to enable between-university knowledge collaboration to boost collaborative knowledge exploration and exploitation of the consortia.

The guppy and the whale: Relational pluralism and start-ups' expropriation dilemma in partnership formation

Start-ups have a high need for resources yet face significant risks when forming partnerships with incumbents to access those resources. We propose that a partnership strategy based on relational pluralism, forming multiplex and multifaceted ties with partners, can mitigate these risks. Such ties offer the start-up increased legitimacy and a relational safeguard against resource misappropriation by more powerful partners. However, we propose that there is a limit to the effectiveness of relational pluralism. Its effect is weakened when the start-up becomes entirely dependent on a small set of partners, or when an additional tie yields resources that are redundant. We argue that the start-up only benefits when the gains from relational safeguarding and legitimacy outweigh the costs of dependence and redundancy. We empirically observe the co-evolution of start-ups’ interlocking directorate and strategic alliance networks in the Australian mining industry over a 10-year period. Our results show that start-ups that engage in relational pluralism perform better than both start-ups that form no alliances and start-ups that form stand-alone alliances. Having a very small portfolio of partners or one that skews heavily toward local partners, however, indeed limits the effectiveness of relational pluralism. Intriguingly, we also find that the temporal sequencing of relational pluralism matters. One of our central findings is that the best performing start-ups first form board interlocks with promising partners and add a strategic alliance later. This offers a rare glance at the temporal sequencing in which peripheral start-ups can gain exceptional performance through partnership formation.

Collaboration partner portfolio along the growth of Chinese firms' innovation capability: configuration, evolution and pattern

Collaboration partner portfolio along the growth of Chinese firms' innovation capability: configuration, evolution and pattern

Collaboration partner portfolio along the growth of Chinese firms' innovation capability: configuration, evolution and pattern

Please note: It is the policy of Inderscience to retract from publication any paper if subsequent to publication it becomes a matter of dispute about intellectual property, publishing ethics or legal issues. This paper has been retracted from publication according to this policy.

Export-Led Growth in the EU: Where and What to Export?

ABSTRACTIn the aftermath of the Great Recession, exports emerge as a meaningful source of growth. In this context, using a panel of 26 European Union members, we assess if and how the product and the destination structures of exports shape the growth dynamics for European countries. We find that growth is fostered through export specialization in high-value-added products, such as manufacturing and high-technology, and by export diversification across partners. However, enlarging the portfolio of partners, mainly to less developed and more distant countries, has negative impacts on growth. Unambiguously, relative concentration of exports should be directed towards higher growth countries.

Alliance portfolio formation and configuration by small and medium ICT firms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the forming and configuring of interfirm cooperation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) characterized by different rates of growth. Design/methodology/approach – The study applies a qualitative approach. A multi-site case study was conducted in 26 Polish ICT firms. Findings – The research indicates that SMEs manage alliances ad hoc and are characterized by a constantly emerging portfolio of partners. The results also indicate that “stable-growth” and “hyper-growth” firms adopt different approaches to managing alliances and they are characterized by different attitude of top managers towards uncertainty. Practical implications – The results suggest that the managers’ attitude affects the formation and management of alliance portfolio in SMEs. The authors further highlight the importance of managerial agency within the firms and indicate that managers can actively shape the alliance portfolio of their firms. Originality/value – The paper theoretically contributes to alliance portfolio literature through the adoption of both managerial and structural perspectives. More precisely, this study provides the factors related to managers that might affect a firm’s alliance portfolio configuration. All of these factors relate to managers’ approach to uncertainty. Furthermore, this study extends the previous research through focusing on SMEs.

What is the Relationship Between Audit Partner Busyness and Audit Quality?

AbstractContemporaneous studies generally find a negative relationship between audit partner busyness (APB), measured as the number of clients in an audit partner's portfolio, and audit quality. Their argument is that a busy partner does not devote sufficient time to properly audit his average client. Contrary to these studies, we argue that when busyness is optimally chosen by the partner, in equilibrium, there is no causal relationship between APB and audit quality. Using Australian data for the 1999–2010 period, we show that APB is not reliably linked to audit quality, consistent with this equilibrium theory. We argue that causality can be ascribed to the APB‐audit quality relationship when accounting scandals exogenously shocked the Australian audit market during the 2002–04 period and APB likely deviated from optimum levels. Supporting this disequilibrium view, we find that higher APB reduces a partner's propensity to issue first‐time going‐concern opinions during this period. Our evidence highlights the importance of the equilibrium condition in testing empirical associations between audit outcomes and endogenous auditor attributes, and shows that the detrimental effect of APB on audit quality is not as pervasive as contemporaneous studies suggest.

Audit Partner Public-Client Specialisation and Client Abnormal Accruals

We examine the association of Big 4 audit partners’ public-client specialisation with client companies’ audit quality. Using a sample of NASDAQ OMX companies in Finland, we identify the audit partner assigned to each public-client engagement. We expect that partners with greater public-client specialisation provide higher quality auditing, since they have likely developed deep domain-specific knowledge and a keen sense of the litigation and reputational risks posed by public clients. In addition, the willingness to resist client pressure likely increases with the number of public clients in the partner's portfolio because dependence on any one client diminishes, which should help to ensure audit quality. The results show that public-client specialisation is negatively associated with abnormal accruals, and this result is attributable to audit partners with three to six public clients. The results of supplemental tests imply that public-client specialisation is more important when general auditing experience is lower. Further, the results reveal that in our setting of high-tax and high alignment between financial reporting and tax reporting, greater public-client specialisation is particularly associated with smaller income-decreasing abnormal accruals, suggesting that auditors with greater public-client specialisation likely recognise the downside reputational implications and achieve audit quality by discouraging tax avoidance.

Collaboration partner portfolio along the growth of Chinese firms' innovation capability: configuration, evolution and pattern

This paper examines RD 2) the partner portfolios of CMEs with high growth rate are characterised by a smaller number of partners, lower level of repeated partnerships and higher collaboration intensity, while the low-growth CMEs just show an opposite trend; 3) universities have gradually become the most prominent partners of both high-growth and low-growth CMEs, but the firms are also experiencing a significant growth in their portfolios. By contrast, the role of research institutes is decreasing rapidly, especially in low-growth CMEs. Finally, four typical collaboration patterns are drawn from in-depth analysis of Chinese collaborating firms.

Incumbent firm invention in emerging fields: evidence from the semiconductor industry

AbstractIncumbent firms are often thought to focus on incremental innovations and only respond to a major technological change once its impact on established markets and/or dominant designs becomes clear. We argue, however, that incumbent firms have many reasons to proactively invent early in cycles of technological change. Our interest is in the strategies that allow incumbents to be successful in this endeavor during the infancy of an emerging field—the period before it is clear how the field will affect dominant designs. Our evidence counters the stereotypical view that incumbent firms play a passive role in major technological changes by adhering to incremental inventions in the existing dominant designs. Rather, we find significant inventions by incumbents outside the existing dominant designs and relate their success to their willingness to search novel areas, explore scientific knowledge in the public domain, and form alliances with a balanced portfolio of partners. We find support for our hypotheses using data from the global semiconductor industry between 1989 and 2002. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

B2B eCommerce: an empirical investigation of information exchange and firm performance

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance effects of information exchange by observing actual information exchange between industrial trading partners. Information exchange facilitates coordination through sharing both order cycle and enhanced information. Increased exchange may lead to closer relationships with the expectation of improved performance. This study moves away from perceived measures of information exchange and firm performance by integrating two datasets: one capturing historical firm performance and the second capturing electronic information exchange data.Design/methodology/approachQuantitative data of electronic information exchange between firms are observed and compared with operational performance results. Longitudinal regression analyses are conducted using data gathered from an electronically‐mediated industrial exchange network. This unique dataset provides distinct insights into the application and performance outcomes related to information exchange.FindingsResults show that information characteristics vary by firm and the position of the firm within the supply chain. Manufacturers benefit from exchanging more basic information and from stability in their trading partner portfolio. Retailers enhance performance when there is more turnover in their trading partner portfolio and when information is exchanged reciprocally with suppliers.Practical implicationsResults from this study provide insight into the potential performance outcomes of sharing information within industrial relationships. The study demonstrates how greater information exchange changes the nature of supply chain relationships. Closer supply chain relationships may improve firm performance, but the extent of this varies based on the firm's position within its supply chain. Consequently, firms should consider the strategic implications of the way in which they exchange information with their trading partners.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature by identifying and testing specific information characteristics using actual observed exchanges of information between firms. The data set supports the measurement of information exchange between multiple firms and trading partners which allows for testing at a level of granularity beyond existing studies.

Combining visualisation techniques to understand co‐operation in inter‐organisational systems

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present an approach to support understanding of inter‐organisational systems.Design/methodology/approachThe approach combines two types of graphical snapshots of relevant properties of each organisation, based on concrete data. The first type of snapshot provides a bird's eye view of the network that enables matching partners to form groups based on similarity. The second type of snapshot can be used to compare and contrast the information technology (IT) portfolio of partners to assess the extent to which each portfolio is ready to meet the needs of the inter‐organisational system. The approach has been applied in a case study that analysed E‐CUSTOMS, a large distributed system that connects the customs organisations of a number of member states of the European Union. The approach has been validated by showing the results to experts in the E‐CUSTOMS project, who confirmed the findings.FindingsAn approach based on quantifiable and non‐quantifiable data that combines two visualisation techniques was used. The graphical snapshots obtained by applying this approach showed similarities and differences between countries that indicate opportunities and challenges in IT integration.Practical implicationsThe approach provides a semi‐automatic method to understand inter‐organisational systems. If in need of successful co‐operation in groups within an inter‐organisational network, this approach will help the expert to ask the right questions.Originality/valueAn understanding of inter‐organisational systems is necessary, as co‐operation in inter‐organisational networks usually requires considerable up‐front investments in IT specific for this co‐operation.

The Effect of General and Partner-Specific Alliance Experience on Joint R&D Project Performance

Drawing on the organizational learning literature, we posited that both general, diverse-partner experience and partner-specific experience contribute to alliance performance, but at a declining rate. We tested hypotheses in unique data on the objective performance of projects between large pharmaceutical firms and biotechnology partners. The general alliance experience of the biotechnology partners, but not of the pharmaceutical firms, positively affected joint project performance. This relationship exhibited diminishing marginal returns. Contrary to predictions, partner-specific experience had a negative, marginally significant effect on joint project performance. Strategic alliances are voluntary arrangements between firms to exchange and share knowledge as well as resources with the intent of developing processes, products, or services (Gulati, 1998: 293). As evidenced by their ubiquitous use in many different industries (Hagedoorn, 1993), alliances have become an important strategic tool. While alliances are used extensively, researchers have produced evidence suggesting that many, if not most, alliances do not live up to expectations or even fail altogether (Kogut, 1989). Understanding the performance of individual alliances is an important, yet underresearched, topic in strategic management. Herein, we seek to make a theoretical as well as a methodological contribution to the understanding of alliance performance. Building on recent conceptual work that proposed the existence of an alliance management capability (Dyer & Singh, 1998; Ireland, Hitt, & Vaidyanath, 2002), we apply an organizational learning lens to outline a theory of alliance experience accumulation obtained from allying across a diverse set of partners, and from repeatedly allying with the same partner over time. Allying across a portfolio of partners leads to general alliance experience obtained from the breadth of a firm’s alliance activity, while allying within the same dyad deepens partner-specific learning. We suggest that the relationship between alliance experience and alliance performance follows an experience curve, and is therefore positive, but characterized by diminishing marginal returns. Empirical work investigating the performance of