Work

The framing of knowledge transfers to shared R&D suppliers and its impact on innovation performance: a regulatory focus perspective

Year: 2015

Type: article

Abstract: When outsourcing research and development (R&D) services, fears of knowledge leakage can make client firms reluctant to transfer knowledge to their suppliers, even at the cost of reducing the performance of the agreement. Outsourcing to R&D suppliers shared with competitors ensures relying on refined capabilities due to the aggregation of the demands of related clients, but also aggravates this interorganizational learning dilemma. Taking a regulatory focus perspective, we argue that the client's commitment to the process of knowledge transfer with a shared supplier will depend on whether the relationship is framed with a promotion or a prevention focus. Using primary data at the transaction level from a survey conducted among 170 European and US technological firms, we find that sharing suppliers with competitors only boosts the client's innovative performance when outsourcing R&D services that do not require the transfer of tacit and firm‐specific knowledge. Otherwise, the appropriability hazards involved will make the firm frame the relationship with a prevention focus limiting the client's ability to achieve its innovation objectives.

Source: R and D Management

DOI: 10.1111/radm.12191

Authors: Andrea Martínez‐Noya, Esteban García‐Canal

Institution: Universidad de Oviedo

Language: English

Topic: Outsourcing and Supply Chain Management

Subfield: Management Information Systems

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: green

Funder: Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad