Crossing Borders and Industry Sectors: Behavioral Governance in Strategic Alliances and Product Innovation for Competitive Advantage

This paper investigates governance mechanisms in international technology alliances (ITAs), firm-level innovation capabilities, and performance outcomes in the mobile computing market. This high-tech market is characterized by numerous cross-border strategic technology collaborations between software and hardware firms. Anchoring our work in interfirm governance theories and the resource-based view, we develop a model and empirically test relationships related to behavioral governance mechanisms, innovation capabilities, and business performance. In the cross-industry and cross-border context, the empirical model explains to what extent complementary strategic resources, through a relational governance mechanism, contribute to the innovation capabilities of high-tech firms, providing competitive advantage. The data, analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) path modeling, indicates that technological commitment is a factor in expediting technology resource exchange in ITAs between heterogeneous firms. Technological commitment is captured by the extent to which a focal firm commits to investing its technology resources in an ITA to maintain the relationship. The results also show that firm-level performance is only influenced by market development capability, and not new product development capability, in product innovation. However, we did not find any significant moderating effects of firm size and industry type on the model. This paper offers insights into how high-tech firms benefit from interfirm governance in international technology resource exchange arrangements. Furthermore, it provides evidence of the methodological usefulness of PLS path modeling in strategic alliance, capability and performance research

Exploitative and exploratory innovations in emerging economies: The role of realized absorptive capacity and learning intent

This paper investigates the mediating effect of learning intent in transforming local suppliers’ potential absorptive capacity into realized absorptive capacity and its impact on exploitative and exploratory innovation. Using survey data from 155 auto parts manufacturers in Pakistan, we find that local firms’ realized absorptive capacity enables them to develop both exploitative and exploratory innovations. The findings further suggest that local suppliers’ learning intent mediates the relationship between potential and realized absorptive capacity which in turn lead to both types of innovation. In the context of the emerging economy of Pakistan, local suppliers’ absorptive capacity is found to be critically important in spurring exploitative and exploratory innovation, but learning intent enables realized absorptive capacity and thus in conjunction with realized absorptive capacity supports innovation. Consequently, there would be a strong case for policy intervention to assist emerging economy firms in building their absorptive capacity and strengthening their learning intent as a route for promoting innovation and improving their value added position in the global value chains of multinational enterprises

Non-market strategies in weak institutional environments : The Case of MNE Subsidiaries in Cameroon

Acknowledgements This work was supported by Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Research Fund.Peer reviewe

The drivers of the post-entry internationalisation commitment of small and medium-sized enterprises

By integrating relational embeddedness in international strategic alliance networks (ISANs) and the dynamic capability perspective, this article presents an examination of the drivers of the post-entry internationalisation commitment of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, we investigated the mediating effect of opportunity-sensing capabilities (OSCs) on the relationship between ISAN relational embeddedness and the post-entry internationalisation commitment of SMEs. We also examined the moderating impact of strategic adaptiveness on the relationship between OSCs and post-entry internationalisation commitment. An analysis of 320 UK-based SMEs, performed using structural equation modelling, revealed that OSCs are an important mechanism through which the ISAN relational embeddedness leads to increased post-entry internationalisation commitment. Furthermore, strategic adaptiveness strengthens the positive relationship between OSCs and post-entry commitment to foreign markets. This article extends the existing SME venturing and internationalisation literature to the domain of SME post-entry internationalisation commitment

Post-Entry Survival of Developing Economy International New Ventures: A Dynamic Capability Perspective

Recent research suggests that the capabilities needed for the survival of international new ventures (INVs) may be at odds with the original aims that had brought them into the international markets. INV mortality is exacerbated by uncertainty and lack of familiarity with the host market environment, which elevates the liabilities of newness, smallness, and foreignness in the initiating companies. We investigate the key factors that determine the post-entry survival of developing economy INVs by analysing in-depth seven software INVs originating in the developing economy of Pakistan. These INVs survived the 2000 dotcom crisis and the 2008 global financial crisis, and continue to grow. Based on a dynamic capability view on the INVs’ internationalization and survival from sensing-seizing-reconfiguration angles, we find the founders’ entrepreneurial orientations and network development capabilities (sensing), specialized product focus and niche market development (seizing), and transformation and renewal capabilities (reconfiguration) are the key capabilities that enhance the post-entry survival of these INVs. Importantly, we find that a stable leadership and the post-entry international experience of the leadership team continuously feed into facilitating the creation and maintenance of dynamic capabilities. This paper identifies key strategic aspects that determine the post-entry survival of the developing economy INVs

Confrontation-coping : A psychological approach to developing market exporting firms’ intentions to adopt emerging technologies

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International entrepreneurial spinoffs : An ambidextrous approach to internationalization

Peer reviewe

Technological innovation as a source of Chinese multinationals’ firm-specific advantages and internationalization

This paper examines how innovation-related firm-specific ownership advantage (FSA) plays a role in developing the competitive advantage of Chinese multinationals when they internationalize. Based on a review of the existing literature concerning foreign direct investment by emerging economy multinational enterprises (EMNEs), we identify that numerous studies explain this phenomenon on the basis of their location-bound country specific advantages. However, such views do not fully explain the key underlying factors behind the rapid rise and success of many EMNEs as these firms rapidly internationalize and develop global competitiveness in developed markets. The current research explores three leading innovative Chinese EMNEs from the engineering sector: BYD, Sany Heavy Industry and CSR China. We find that their knowledge, and particularly their innovation-creating technological knowledge has contributed greatly to their successful internationalization. The illustrative cases show that the three firms have now moved beyond the infant to the mature stage of EMNE development through developing their technological knowledge in order to realize firm-specific advantage (FSA) through internationalization. This study helps in contributing fresh reflections to the continuing debate concerning the causes of internationalization and global competitive development by EMNEs and the role of their FSAs in these processes

Business Incubators as International Knowledge Intermediaries : Exploring their role in the internationalization of start-ups from an emerging market

Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 72002004; 71872043] and Academic Program of Beijing International Studies University [financial code: 21110010006].Peer reviewedPostprin

Gravitating toward the quadruple helix: International connections for the enhancement of a regional innovation system in Northeast Italy

The majority of previous Regional Innovation System (RIS) studies generally provide a rather static overview of the roles of innovation-creating actors. This article explores a single RIS in Trentino in Italy. The case shows that the roles of three actors (i.e., the provincial government, academia/research centers, and firms) are vital in creating the RIS, and that the provincial-level government policy is important in supporting the innovation activities of regional research institutions and firms aimed at developing their international connections. The public-private research collaboration and international connections of these actors are the key determinants of the development of an advanced RIS, but have largely been ignored in the extant RIS literature. This article extends the existing RIS and Triple Helix research to an international dimension, highlighting the complementary role of international connections within the RIS, thus reflecting a shift toward Quadruple Helix