Alliance-to-acquisition transitions:The technological performance implications of acquiring one's alliance partners

Drawing on organizational learning theory, we investigate the technological performance implications of acquiring one's alliance partners. We do so using a sample of 252 firms in four high tech industries, who jointly announced 2,398 acquisitions and filed 125,440 new patent applications, in the period of our analysis. We argue a history of collaboration will allow the acquirer to more easily identify and absorb the target's knowledge, and show that the share of 'alliance-to-acquisition transitions', in the total set of the firm's acquisitions, increases the firm's inventive quantity. We also argue that a history of collaboration reduces the opportunity to encounter unknown and unexpected knowledge, which will affect both the type and quality of invention. We find support for the former, and show that the share of alliance-to-acquisition transitions increases the firms exploitative tendencies. In terms of the latter, we find a weak relationship between the share of transitions and overall patent quality, but find that the share of transitions does not affect the number of high quality breakthrough inventions. In so doing, we provide new insights, relevant to the acquisition literature, the literature on transitional governance, and the literature on organisational learning, and position alliance-to-acquisition transitions as a mechanism for altering the firm's technology production function

Technological acquisitions:The impact of geography on post-acquisition innovative performance

Contains fulltext : 160470.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Our empirical study considers the impact of geography on post-acquisition performance for technological acquisitions. Relying on insights from the transaction costs and international business literatures we suggest that both geographic distance and borders influence post-acquisition innovative performance. Examining the patent portfolios of 3683 high tech acquirers in the period 2000–2012 we support a ‘liability of distance’ hypothesis and show that every 1000 km between the target and the acquirer costs as much as 19 lost patent applications. We do not find support for a ‘liability of foreignness’ hypothesis, however, but show in fact, that else equal, cross-border deals result in 3.15 additional patent applications. For high tech acquirers we find that ‘foreignness’ appears, therefore, to be more of an ‘asset’ than a ‘liability’. We find that the lion’s share of this is attributable to cultural differences

Organizing intra-organizational networks for innovation

Innovatie is het vermogen van organisaties om zichzelf te vernieuwen, hetgeen de basis is voor toekomstig concurrentievoordeel. Niettemin wordt het structureren van innovatie vaker gezien als een 'contradictio in terminis' dan als een levensvatbare strategische doelstelling. Een belangrijke reden voor deze discrepantie is dat het genereren van innovatieve resultaten sterk verankerd is in de onderliggende structuren van samenwerking tussen werknemers. Het proefschrift van Rick Aalbers behandelt de relatie tussen de formele en informele menselijke samenwerking binnen organisaties, vanuit het perspectief van een intra-organisationeel netwerk. Het verkent de wijze waarop deze netwerken het structureren van intra-organisationele innovatie toelaten. Eerder onderzoek naar innovatie benadrukt vooral de rol van de innovatiegemeenschap als een entiteit op zich. Het onderzoek van Aalbers richt zich echter specifiek op het gedrag en de netwerkantecedenten op het niveau van het individu, in relatie tot innovatieve activiteiten. Meer specifiek adresseert het de meest geëigende manieren om als management in dergelijke organisatienetwerken te interveniëren. Netwerkinterventie wordt daarbij bekeken vanuit verschillende invalshoeken, zoals een gerichte taskforce-interventie en een grootschalige reorganisatie. Als zodanig leidt dat tot inzicht in de kenmerken van individuele betrokkenheid bij intra-organisationele innovatieve kennisoverdracht. Innovation is the capability of organizations to renew themselves and forms the epitome of competitive advantage. Yet, structuring innovation is more often seen as a ’contradictio in terminis’ than as a viable strategic objective for corporate management. A prime reason for this discrepancy is that generating innovative outcomes remains a core competence entrenched in human cooperation. The underlying network structures are deemed indispensable as they provide access to relevant organizational resources and foster wider organizational support. We explore the relation between both formal and informal human collaboration within organizations from an intra-organizational network perspective as a means to organize these intra-organizational networks for innovation. We focus on the network behavior of individuals as they position themselves in the wider organizational innovation arena. Much of the prior research on innovation has emphasized the role of the innovation community as an entity of its own. We on the other hand particularly articulate the behavior and network antecedents displayed at the individual level, such as horizontal and vertical connectedness, multiplexity of one’s ties, motivation and various structural network positions to determine what characteristics define an employee’s involvement with intra-organizational innovative knowledge transfer. We also address the evolution of these intra-organizational networks as they progress in time as we examine the way in which managerial intervention in these networks might affect intra-organizational innovative potential over time. As such, this dissertation is nested in what is formally defined as network theory, examining the mechanisms and processes that interact with network structures to yield particular outcomes for individuals and groups.

Resilience of information flow during restructuring : Characterizing information value being exchanged and the structure of a network under turmoil

Based on a unique before-and-after research design for a study of a large financial services provider, this paper demonstrates how a sudden and substantial reduction in the number of formal positions affects an organization's voluntary ideation network in unexpected ways. The network of relations maintained to voluntarily (informally) exchange new ideas within a firm is more resilient to exogenous restructuring than the current literature suggests. Drawing on network theory, we show that the positioning of employees in an organization's instrumental workflow network prior to a major restructuring determines the degree to which they remain engaged with ideation activity. In addition, drawing on social exchange theory, we predict and find that the value of inputs provided to peers prior to downsizing positively moderates the likelihood that ideation activity persists. Thus, we contribute to research on organization restructuring and the evolution of social relations under conditions of uncertainty.</p

Technological acquisitions:The impact of geography on post-acquisition innovative performance

Our empirical study considers the impact of geography on post-acquisition performance for technological acquisitions. Relying on insights from the transaction costs and international business literatures we suggest that both geographic distance and borders influence post-acquisition innovative performance. Examining the patent portfolios of 3683 high tech acquirers in the period 2000–2012 we support a ‘liability of distance’ hypothesis and show that every 1000 km between the target and the acquirer costs as much as 19 lost patent applications. We do not find support for a ‘liability of foreignness’ hypothesis, however, but show in fact, that else equal, cross-border deals result in 3.15 additional patent applications. For high tech acquirers we find that ‘foreignness’ appears, therefore, to be more of an ‘asset’ than a ‘liability’. We find that the lion’s share of this is attributable to cultural differences