Organizational Identity and Interorganizational Alliances
01 Jan 2012-
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the relationship between organizational identity and the formation and performance implications of interorganizational alliances and developed a theory of how this variation affects the search for alliance partners in terms of the speed of alliance formation and the diversity between the new organization and its partners.
Abstract: This dissertation examines the relationship between organizational identity and the formation and performance implications of interorganizational alliances. The first study investigates the effect of an organization's identity on its initial alliance portfolio formation, addressing how becoming comprehensible through organizational identity is a fundamental step in order for a new organization to be accepted by the market. Through different categorizations, some new organizations will be more comprehensible and possess clearer identities in the market than others. I develop a theory of how this variation affects the search for alliance partners in terms of the speed of alliance formation and the diversity between the new organization and its partners. The second study investigates how organizational identity affects the impact of alliances on performance outcomes. Alliances that explore and experiment tend to affect organizational outcomes negatively, at least in the short term. Although exploration strategies facilitate learning and adaptation in the long run, they incur costs due to the nature of experimentation. I advance an alternative perspective that organizational identity plays a role in this alliance-performance link. Depending on the strength of an organization's identity in terms of how coherent and taken-for-granted its categorization or social grouping is, the effect on performance may be more or less negative. Overall, this research indicates that organizational identity matters both to an organization's initial alliance portfolio formation and to the impact of this alliance portfolio on performance outcomes. This work contributes to the literature streams of both organizational identity and alliances, and presents the first systematic investigation of the link between them.
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301 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the influence of the structure and composition of a firm's alliance network on its exploratory innovation was examined, and the benefits of network closure and access to diverse information can coexist in a firms' alliance network.
Abstract: This study examines the influence of the structure and composition of a firm's alliance network on its exploratory innovation. In a longitudinal investigation of 77 telecommunications equipment manufacturers, I find the technological diversity of a firm's alliance partners increases its exploratory innovation. I also find that network density among a firm's alliance partners strengthens the influence of diversity. These results suggest the benefits of network closure and access to diverse information can coexist in a firm's alliance network and the combination of the two increases exploratory innovation.
54 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: A review of the existing literature on alliance portfolio literature can be found in this paper, where three key research areas are identified: (a) the emergence of alliance portfolios, (b) the configuration of alliance portfolio, and (c) the management of portfolio.
Abstract: The engagement of firms in multiple simultaneous strategic alliances with different partners has become a ubiquitous phenomenon in today's business landscape This article offers a review of the extant alliance portfolio literature and organizes it around three key research areas: (a) the emergence of alliance portfolios, (b) the configuration of alliance portfolios, and (c) the management of alliance portfolios The article also highlights existing gaps in the present understanding of alliance portfolios and outlines a research agenda by identifying key research questions and issues in the areas where further research is needed
36 citations
References
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TL;DR: The imperfections of learning are not so great as to require abandoning attempts to improve the learning capabilities of organizations, but that those imperfections suggest a certain conservatism in expectations.
Abstract: Organizational learning has many virtues, virtues which recent writings in strategic management have highlighted. Learning processes, however, are subject to some important limitations. As is well-known, learning has to cope with confusing experience and the complicated problem of balancing the competing goals of developing new knowledge (i.e., exploring) and exploiting current competencies in the face of dynamic tendencies to emphasize one or the other. We examine the ways organizations approach these problems through simplification and specialization and how those approaches contribute to three forms of learning myopia, the tendency to overlook distant times, distant places, and failures, and we identify some ways in which organizations sustain exploration in the face of a tendency to overinvest in exploitation. We conclude that the imperfections of learning are not so great as to require abandoning attempts to improve the learning capabilities of organizations, but that those imperfections suggest a certain conservatism in expectations.
6,071 citations
"Organizational Identity and Interor..." refers background or methods in this paper
...In the long term, exploration facilitates learning and adaptation, but, due to the costs of experimenting beyond the organization’s current capabilities, it comes at the expense of poor performance in the short term (Levinthal and March, 1993; March, 1991)....
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...efficiency and refining existing capabilities and methods of execution (Levinthal and March, 1993; March, 1991)....
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...The immediate returns from exploration will tend to be negative because an organization must expend present resources pursing a new discovery in hopes of some future benefit, whereas the immediate returns from exploitation will tend to be positive because an organization will accrue present benefits from the utilization of its current capabilities (Levinthal and March, 1993; March, 1991)....
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20 Jul 2000
TL;DR: The relation of the society outside organizations to the internal life of organizations is discussed in this article, where the authors focus on the effects of organizational variables on the surrounding social environment, including groups, institutions, laws, population characteristics, and sets of social relations that form the environment of the organization.
Abstract: The general topic of this chapter is the relation of the society outside organizations to the internal life of organizations Part of the specific topics have to do with the effect of society on organizations, and part of them concern the effects of organizational variables on the surrounding social environment I intend to interpret the term “social structure” in the title in a very general sense, to include groups, institutions, laws, population characteristics, and sets of social relations that form the environment of the organization That is, I interpret “social structure” to mean any variables which are stable characteristics of the society outside the organization By an “organization” I mean a set of stable social relations deliberately created, with the explicit intention of continuously accomplishing some specific goals or purposes These goals or purposes are generally functions performed for some larger structure For example, armies have the goal of winning possible military engagements The fulfillment of this goal is a function performed for the larger political structure, which has functional requirements of defense and conquest I exclude from organizations many types of groups which have multiple purposes (or which perform multiple functions for larger systems, whether these are anyone's purposes or not), such as families, geographical communities, ethnic groups, or total societies 1 also exclude social arrangements built up on the spur of the moment to achieve some specific short-run purpose For instance, I will not consider a campaign committee for some political candidate as an “organization,” although a political party would definitely meet the criterion of continuous functioning and relatively specific purposes
5,017 citations
"Organizational Identity and Interor..." refers background in this paper
...New firms are more prone to failure than established firms because they lack legitimacy and need to establish new working relationships (Stinchcombe, 1965); to survive, a new firm must quickly gain legitimacy and justify its existence (Aldrich and Fiol, 1997; Suchman, 1995)....
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...Such liabilities cause new firms to have a higher risk of failure than older and more established firms (Stinchcombe, 1965)....
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...Liabilities of newness also contribute to the stratification of firms within an industry (Stinchcombe, 1965)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the developmental process of cooperative interorganizational relationships (IORs) that entail transaction-specific investments in deals that cannot be fully specified or controlled by the parties in advance of their execution.
Abstract: This article examines the developmental process of cooperative interorganizational relationships (IORs) that entail transaction-specific investments in deals that cannot be fully specified or controlled by the parties in advance of their execution. A process framework is introduced that focuses on formal, legal, and informal social-psychological processes by which organizational parties jointly negotiate, commit to. and execute their relationship in ways that achieve efficient and equitable outcomes and internal solutions to conflicts when they arise. The framework is elaborated with a set of propositions that explain how and why cooperative IORs emerge, evolve, and dissolve. The propositions have academic implications for enriching interorganizational relationships, transaction cost economics, agency theories, and practical implications for managing the relationship journey.
4,904 citations
01 Jan 1978
TL;DR: On those remote pages it is written that animals are divided into those that belong to the Emperor, and those that are trained, suckling pigs and stray dogs.
Abstract: On those remote pages itis written that animals are divided into (a) those that belong tothe Emperor, (b)embalmed ones, (c) those that are trained, (d) suckling pigs, (e) mermaids, (f) fabulous ones, (g) stray dogs, (h) those that are included in this classification, (i) those that tremble as if they were mad, (j) innumerable ones, (k) those drawn with a very fine camels hair brush, (1) others, (m) those that have just broken a flower vase, (n) those that resemble f ies from
4,302 citations
"Organizational Identity and Interor..." refers background or methods in this paper
...I calculated the average grade of membership measure for the categories in the middle tier of CorpTech’s taxonomy, as mid-level categories tend to have the highest levels of abstraction according to the principles of categorization (Rosch, 1978)....
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...entities in a category and least representative of entities outside the category (Rosch, 1978)....
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...Category systems may be structured along vertical and horizontal dimensions that enable cognitive economy and a structured perception of the world (Rosch, 1978)....
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..., entities, natural objects, or events) that are considered equivalent (Rosch, 1978)....
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...We tend to distinguish categories from one another in terms of prototypical members because often the attributes of categories at the same vertical level of abstraction are not entirely clear-cut (Rosch, 1978)....
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TL;DR: Based on a sample of 206 manufacturing firms, evidence is found consistent with the ambidexterity hypothesis by showing that the interaction between explorative and exploitative innovation strategies is positively related to sales growth rate and the relative imbalance betweenexploration and exploitation strategies is negatively related toSales growth rate.
Abstract: While exploration and exploitation represent two fundamentally different approaches to organizational learning, recent literature has increasingly indicated the need for firms to achieve a balance between the two. This balanced view is embedded in the concept of ambidextrous organizations. However, there is little direct evidence of the positive effect of ambidexterity on firm performance. This paper seeks to test the ambidexterity hypothesis by examining how exploration and exploitation can jointly influence firm performance in the context of firms' approach to technological innovation. Based on a sample of 206 manufacturing firms, we find evidence consistent with the ambidexterity hypothesis by showing that (1) the interaction between explorative and exploitative innovation strategies is positively related to sales growth rate, and (2) the relative imbalance between explorative and exploitative innovation strategies is negatively related to sales growth rate.
3,231 citations