UNU-MERIT Working Papers Series
The Innovative Performance of Alliance Block Members: Evidence from the Microelectronics Industry
Geert Duysters, Charmianne Lemmens, Wilko Letterie & Wim Vanhaverbeke #2008-064The 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. 4 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.
Keywords: strategic technology alliances, alliance block membership
strategy, microelectronics industry, innovative performance, technology
strategies
JEL codes: O31, O32
UNU-MERIT Working Papers
ISSN 1871-9872
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