Year: 2006
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Strategic networks and other external relationships of firms have become an eminent topic in strategic management. External relationships have been argued to provide firms knowledge and thereby foster inventiveness. This dissertation addresses the influence of organizational networks and pre-existing knowledge base on technological change in business firms through five publications describing independent empirical studies. This dissertation contributes to theory by developing and testing hypothesis that relate characteristics of network relationship to quantity, type, and timing of inventions.\n\nThe first research paper examines the creation of explorative and exploitative inventions from knowledge obtained through external relationship. The results support the predictions that tight integration, technological relatedness, and partner in customer industries decrease the likelihood of explorative outcomes. The findings are based on a logistic regression analysis of a longitudinal dataset, consisting of 110 largest U.S. public ICT companies and their external corporate ventures and patents.\n\nThe second paper investigates the timing of inventions in external relationships. A novel research setting shows that the industry-relatedness and form of external relationships influences the timing of inventions. Most importantly, high research and development spending enables the firm to exploit partner's knowledge more rapidly. Results are based on a data set derived from the first study and analyzed using a longitudinal negative binomial regression model.\n\nThe third paper links firms' external relationships to their rate of innovative output. The findings show systematic differences in the benefits accruing from different forms of relationship and levels of relatedness. Most importantly, partners in related industries provided greater benefits than intra-industry and unrelated partners. The analysis is based on negative binomial panel model and utilizes data derived from the first two studies.\n\nThe fourth paper examines the role of intra-industry social networks and technological specialization on the tendency to utilize proprietary knowledge as a basis for future inventions. Social centrality is associated with increased tendency for re-use of prior own knowledge in peripheral technological areas, while decreasing knowledge re-use in central technological areas. Inventions in more central technological areas are re-used more commonly. Contrary to earlier findings, I do not find a significant relationship between innovation team social centrality and the subsequent impact of the invention. The analysis is based on 450 innovation reports and related patents of a corporate R&D center. I use Tobit, linear, and negative binomial regression models.\n\nThe last paper applies the literature on local search to explain the choice of acquisition targets. As expected, the proximity of two companies in terms of alliances, country co-location, and technological similarity is associated with higher acquisition likelihood. However, these search contexts moderate one-other: companies tend to acquire technologically similar foreign firms and technologically dissimilar alliance partners. The analysis is conducted using on rare events logistic regression models with a dyadic longitudinal dataset based on 167 acquisitions in the global pharmaceuticals industry.
Source: Aaltodoc (Aalto University)
Author: Henri Schildt
Language: English
Subfield: Strategy and Management
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W183156160