Alliance block composition patterns in the microelectronics industry

In this note we examine whether a position in a technology alliance block is accessible to everyone. It appears that partners are selected on the basis of distinctive attributes they have, which can inhibit outsiders to join these alliance groups. Our findings clearly indicate that alliance blocks are composed of actors that have rather similar characteristics. The social selection processes that alliance block members employ vis-a-vis non-block members can create a source of competitive advantage in terms of a higher innovative performance. Empirical research is focused on the international microelectronics industry.strategic technology alliances, alliance block membership strategy, microelectronics industry, group-based competition

The Innovative Performance of Alliance Block Members: Evidence from the Microelectronics Industry

The primary goal of this paper is to improve our understanding of the complex relationship between the positioning of companies in alliance networks and their innovative performance. In particular, we expect that a firm's innovative performance depends partly on its position in specific network settings (block membership or nonblock membership), with additional effects caused by the technology positioning strategies firms pursue in terms of technological specialization in alliance blocks. Alliance groups derive their competitive advantage from their superior and particular technologies, which they develop and exploit together in the alliance blocks. Incorporating this moderating effect of the degree of technological specialization in alliance blocks (exploitation or exploration) seems to give more insight in the contextual issues in this stream of literature.strategic technology alliances, alliance block membership strategy, microelectronics industry, innovative performance, technology strategies

Network dynamics and innovation: the effects of social embeddedness in technology alliance blocks

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Cohesive subgroup formation : enabling and constraining effects of social capital in strategic technology alliance networks

In this paper we will examine the role of embeddedness and social capital in the process of cohesive subgroup formation in strategic technology alliance networks. More in particular, we will investigate the social mechanisms that enable and enforce cohesive subgroup formation. We will argue that the enabling effects of social capital in the beginning of the group formation process can turn into paralyzing effects as the block formation process progresses. Through the formation of subsequent ties, firms in social systems tend to rely heavily on their direct and indirect contacts in forming new partnerships. This so-called local search enables firms to create trustworthy and preferential relations. Over time, those relations tend to develop into strong ties, as firms rely on the same partners by replicating their existing ties. This enabling effect of social capital at the group level can, however, turn into a paralyzing effect as actors become locked-in, as they only rely on partners in their closed social system. Then searching for or switching to partners outside of the cohesive subgroup is hard to rationalize, in particular when trustworthy partners are already available in this system. The firms in cohesive subgroups tend to become more similar over time as a result of contagion and replication of their existing ties. This so-called phenomenon of overembeddedness induced by the paralyzing effects of social capital at the group level can lead to decreasing opportunities for learning and innovation for blockmembers involved

The effect of alliance block membership on innovative performance

The role of social networks in innovation diffusion remains a strategic question. In former works, we have introduced a relational learning, based on hebbian rule, that leads to a critical state, in which few agents reach structural positions of opinion leaders. In this paper, we show that the self-organization of an influence network, through social learning, is not a monotonie process, from the point of view of structural characteristics as well as of its diffusion performances. The notion of intermediarity, which derives directly from the concept of network, appears necessary to decrypt this evolution. By introducing the role of "weak ties" in the diverse diffusion regimes it is then possible to bring a new understan-ding of the phenomenon.Cet article explore la relation entre appartenance à un bloc d'alliance et performance d'innovation dans un réseau inter-organisationnel à base technologique, dans une perspective longitudinale. L'appartenance à un bloc d'alliance ou à un sous-groupe cohésif de firmes peut être considérée comme l'une des formes les plus solides de l'encastrement social. On peut attendre que la performance d'innovation d'une firme soit dépendante de sa position dans différentes configurations de réseau dans lesquelles elle est impliquée, ainsi que de la nature, radicale ou incrémentale, du changement technique. Après avoir discuté de ces diverses inter-dépendances, nous mettrons en évidence quelques propositions de base sur les effets de l'appartenance à un bloc d'alliance sur la performance d'innovation selon les conditions prévalantes du changement technique.Duysters Geert, Hagedoorn John, Lemmens Charmianne. The effect of alliance block membership on innovative performance. In: Revue d'économie industrielle, vol. 103, 2e et 3e trimestre 2003. La morphogénèse des réseaux, sous la direction de Patrick Cohendet, Alan Kirman et Jean-Benoît Zimmermann. pp. 59-70