The Role of Strategic Alliances in High-Technology New Product Development

Much of the prior research on interorganizational learning has focused on the role of absorptive capacity, a firm's ability to value, assimilate, and utilize new external knowledge. However, this definition of the construct suggests that a firm has an equal capacity to learn from all other organizations. We reconceptualize the firm-level construct absorptive capacity as a learning dyad-level construct, relative absorptive capacity. One firm's ability to learn from another firm is argued to depend on the similarity of both firms' (1) knowledge bases, (2) organizational structures and compensation policies, and (3) dominant logics. We then test the model using a sample of pharmaceutical–biotechnology R&D alliances. As predicted, the similarity of the partners' basic knowledge, lower management formalization, research centralization, compensation practices, and research communities were positively related to interorganizational learning. The relative absorptive capacity measures are also shown to have greater explanatory power than the established measure of absorptive capacity, R&D spending. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Relative absorptive capacity and interorganizational learning

https://research.aalto.fi/files/34494916/Supplier_innovations_Pihlajamaa_et_al_JPSM.pdf

Can supplier innovations substitute for internal R&D? A multiple case study from an absorptive capacity perspective

Supplier innovation value from a buyer–supplier structural equivalence view: Evidence from the PACE awards in the automotive industry

Trading-off innovation novelty and information protection in supplier selection for a new product development project: Supplier ties as signals

A theory of supplier network-based innovation value

Studies show the benefits of supplier integration, yet negative attitudes toward supplier integration may exist that constrain the initiative. The source of these negative attitudes is unclear, however. While literature tends to treat inter-firm management issues, e.g. supplier integration, separately from intra-firm management issues, we posit that with regards to attitudes, one is indicative of the other, and that the firm context influences how this occurs. Specifically, our research proposes that (A) characteristics related to intra-firm integration influence attitudes toward inter-firm integration, and (B) such influences have opposing strengths between the United States (U.S.) and China. Using theory about attitudes from social psychology literature and data from 224 U.S. and 117 Chinese manufacturing managers, our study finds that managerial attitudes toward supplier integration depend on the degree to which a collaborative organizational culture and synchronous manufacturing practices exist within...

Sophie Yang Yang

Papers

A theory of supplier network-based innovation value

Contextual Influences on Managerial Attitudes toward Supplier Integration: A Cross-Country Study