Alliances, corporate technological entrepreneurship and firm performance: Testing a model on manufacturing firms

Abstract Corporate entrepreneurship can be considered important for organisational performance. While being recognised as being important for the development of innovations and technologies of small- and medium-sized firms and for the innovation/technology strategies of large firms, inter-organisational relationships in terms of networks and alliances have received inadequate research attention in the context of corporate entrepreneurship in general and in corporate technological entrepreneurship in particular. This study developed and tested a model of alliance-driven corporate technological entrepreneurship activities that impact on organisational performance. The model was tested on 226 usable responses from mail survey data from a sample of manufacturing firms from Slovenia. The model indicates the value of engagement in strategic alliances for the development of corporate technological entrepreneurship activities and consequential performance improvements.

[1]  A. Saxenian The origins and dynamics of production networks in Silicon Valley , 1991 .

[2]  Donna J. Kelley,et al.  Advantage beyond founding: The strategic use of technologies , 2002 .

[3]  Technological Intensity and Patterns in Slovenian Merchandise Trade , 2006 .

[4]  K. Eisenhardt,et al.  Resource-based View of Strategic Alliance Formation: Strategic and Social Effects in Entrepreneurial Firms , 1996 .

[5]  S. Zahra Predictors and Financial Outcomes of Corporate Entrepreneurship: An Exploratory Study , 1991 .

[6]  David L. Deeds,et al.  Strategic alliances and the rate of new product development: An empirical study of entrepreneurial biotechnology firms , 1996 .

[7]  Gareth R. Jones,et al.  Managing Internal Corporate Entrepreneurship: An Agency Theory Perspective , 1992 .

[8]  Igor Prodan,et al.  Technological Innovativeness and Firm Performance in Slovenia and Romania , 2007 .

[9]  Gary A. Knight,et al.  Cross-cultural reliability and validity of a scale to measure firm entrepreneurial orientation , 1997 .

[10]  T. Das,et al.  Between Trust and Control: Developing Confidence in Partner Cooperation in Alliances , 1998 .

[11]  I. Fertő The Dynamics of Trade in Central and Eastern European Countries , 2007 .

[12]  S. Newell,et al.  The Role of Networks In the Diffusion of Technological Innovation , 1996 .

[13]  Susanne Lütz,et al.  Contingencies of innovative networks: A case study of successful interfirm R & D collaboration , 1994 .

[14]  Seung Ho Park,et al.  Managing an Interorganizational Network: A Framework of the Institutional Mechanism for Network Control , 1996 .

[15]  Todd Saxton,et al.  The Effects of Partner and Relationship Characteristics On Alliance Outcomes , 1997 .

[16]  M. Freel,et al.  Do Small Innovating Firms Outperform Non-Innovators? , 2000 .

[17]  Junichi Iijima,et al.  Linkage between strategic alliances and firm’s business strategy: the case of semiconductor industry , 2005 .

[18]  Joanne Roberts From Know-how to Show-how? Questioning the Role of Information and Communication Technologies in Knowledge Transfer , 2000 .

[19]  Shaker A. Zahra,et al.  Goverance, Ownership, and Corporate Entrepreneurship: The Moderating Impact of Industry Technological Opportunities , 1996 .

[20]  S. Ghoshal,et al.  Social Capital and Value Creation: The Role of Intrafirm Networks , 1998 .

[21]  M. Tushman,et al.  Managing Strategic Innovation and Change: A Collection of Readings , 1996 .

[22]  Morgan P. Miles,et al.  Exploring the Practice of Corporate Venturing: Some Common Forms and Their Organizational Implications , 2002 .

[23]  Joel A. C. Baum,et al.  Don't go it alone: alliance network composition and startups' performance in Canadian biotechnology , 2000 .

[24]  Bostjan Antoncic,et al.  Clarifying the intrapreneurship concept , 2003 .

[25]  Robert E. Spekman,et al.  Characteristics of partnership success: Partnership attributes, communication behavior, and conflict resolution techniques , 1994 .

[26]  M. Lerner,et al.  Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research , 2003 .

[27]  D. Mowery,et al.  Strategic alliances and interfirm knowledge transfer , 1996 .

[28]  K. Vesper,et al.  Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurship , 1982 .

[29]  David L. Deeds,et al.  An examination of opportunistic action within research alliances: Evidence from the biotechnology industry , 1999 .

[30]  Stephan M. Wagner,et al.  An Empirical Investigation of Knowledge-Sharing in Networks , 2005 .

[31]  B. Uzzi,et al.  Social Structure and Competition in Interfirm Networks: The Paradox of Embeddedness , 1997 .

[32]  Anita Trnavcevic,et al.  Internal Marketing and Schools: The Slovenian Case Study , 2006 .

[33]  S. Zahra,et al.  Sources of capabilities, integration and technology commercialization , 2002 .

[34]  Lori Rosenkopf,et al.  Social Network Effects on the Extent of Innovation Diffusion: A Computer Simulation , 1997 .

[35]  S. Borgatti,et al.  A General Theory of Network Governance: Exchange Conditions and Social Mechanisms , 1997 .

[36]  H. Gemünden,et al.  Network configuration and innovation success: An empirical analysis in German high-tech industries , 1996 .

[37]  Arvind Parkhe Interfirm Diversity, Organizational Learning, and Longevity in Global Strategic Alliances , 1991 .

[38]  Harbir Singh,et al.  Learning and protection of proprietary assets in strategic alliances: building relational capital , 2000 .

[39]  H. Gemünden,et al.  The impact of a company's business strategy on its technological competence, network competence and innovation success , 2004 .

[40]  Pat H. Dickson,et al.  The Influence of National Culture on the Formation of Technology Alliances by Entrepreneurial Firms , 2000 .

[41]  S. Zahra,et al.  Contextual influences on the corporate entrepreneurship-performance relationship: A longitudinal analysis , 1995 .

[42]  Michael H. Morris,et al.  The concept of entrepreneurial intensity: Implications for company performance , 1996 .

[43]  R. Hisrich,et al.  Intrapreneurship: Construct refinement and cross-cultural validation , 2001 .

[44]  Henry Adobor Trust as sensemaking: the microdynamics of trust in interfirm alliances , 2005 .

[45]  S. Zahra Environment, corporate entrepreneurship, and financial performance: A taxonomic approach , 1993 .

[46]  Arvind Parkhe Strategic Alliance Structuring: A Game Theoretic and Transaction Cost Examination of Interfirm Cooperation , 1993 .

[47]  Robert T. Keller,et al.  CAREER ORIENTATIONS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES AND COMPANIES: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF WEST GERMAN, BRITISH AND US INDUSTRIAL R&D PROFESSIONALS[1] , 1988 .

[48]  R. Amit,et al.  A dynamic perspective of internal fit in corporate venturing , 2001 .

[49]  Jörg Lackenbauer Catching-up, Regional Disparities and EU Cohesion Policy: The Case of Hungary , 2004 .

[50]  Mcdp Mathieu Weggeman,et al.  Towards an innovation culture : what are it's national, corporate, marketing and engineering aspects, some experimental evidence , 2001 .

[51]  David F. Midgley,et al.  The effect of network structure in industrial diffusion processes , 1992 .

[52]  David L. Deeds,et al.  Alliance type, alliance experience and alliance management capability in high-technology ventures , 2004 .

[53]  Richard M. Steers,et al.  Organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover among psychiatric technicians. , 1974 .

[54]  J. Covin Entrepreneurial Versus Conservative Firms: A Comparison of Strategies and Performance , 1991 .

[55]  R. H. Waterman,et al.  In Search of Excellence , 1983 .

[56]  H. Yasuda Formation of strategic alliances in high-technology industries: comparative study of the resource-based theory and the transaction-cost theory , 2005 .

[57]  Robert D. Hisrich,et al.  Ethics and entrepreneurs: An international comparative study , 2003 .

[58]  Xueming Luo,et al.  Entrepreneurial firms in the context of China's transition economy: an integrative framework and empirical examination , 2005 .

[59]  R. Hisrich,et al.  Corporate entrepreneurship contingencies and organizational wealth creation , 2004 .

[60]  Bostjan Antoncic,et al.  The Mediating Role of Corporate Entrepreneurship in the Organizational Support–Performance Relationship: An Empirical Examination , 2004 .

[61]  Steven H. Hanks,et al.  Measuring the performance of emerging businesses: A validation study , 1993 .

[62]  W. Powell,et al.  Interorganizational Collaboration and the Locus of Innovation: Networks of Learning in Biotechnology. , 1996 .

[63]  R. Kanter The Change Masters , 1983 .

[64]  Erol Taymaz,et al.  Does innovativeness matter for international competitiveness in developing countries?: The case of Turkish manufacturing industries , 2004 .

[65]  Astrid Heidemann Lassen,et al.  Corporate Entrepreneurship: An Empirical Study of the Importance of Strategic Considerations in the Creation of Radical Innovation , 2007 .

[66]  Željka Šporer Knowledge-Based Economy and Social Capital in Central and East European Countries , 2004 .

[67]  C. A. Benavides-Velasco,et al.  Cooperation, competition, and innovative capability: a panel data of European dedicated biotechnology firms , 2004 .

[68]  V. Shaw,et al.  The influence of behavioural and organisational characteristics on the success of international strategic alliances , 2004 .

[69]  Javier Revilla Diez,et al.  Technological Capabilities and Innovation in Southeast Asia , 2006 .

[70]  Scott Shane,et al.  Guest editors' introduction to the special issue on technology entrepreneurship , 2003 .

[71]  Štefan Bojnec Business and Managerial Start-ups, R&D, and Product Innovation in Slovenia , 2001 .

[72]  Jeffrey S. Hornsby,et al.  An Interactive Model of the Corporate Entrepreneurship Process , 1993 .

[73]  S. Piereson,et al.  In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies. By Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr. New York: Harper & Row, 1982 , 1983 .

[74]  Geert Duysters,et al.  Collaboration and innovation: a review of the effects of mergers, acquisitions and alliances on innovation , 2005 .

[75]  J. Günther,et al.  Eastern Germany in the Process of Catching Up : The Role of Foreign and West German Investors in Technological Renewal , 2005 .

[76]  R. Duane Ireland,et al.  Book Reviews , 2002 .

[77]  D. Slevin,et al.  A Conceptual Model of Entrepreneurship as Firm Behavior , 1991 .

[78]  Leyland Pitt,et al.  Swedish Biotech Smes: The Veiled Values in Online Networks , 2006 .

[79]  S. Zahra,et al.  International corporate entrepreneurship and firm performance - The moderating effect of international environmental hostility , 2000 .

[80]  K. Vesper New venture strategies , 1979 .

[81]  Bostjan Antoncic,et al.  Organizational Processes In Intrapreneurship: A Conceptual Integration , 2001 .

[82]  Cezar Scarlat,et al.  CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE: A COMPARISON BETWEEN SLOVENIA AND ROMANIA , 2005 .

[83]  K. Mark Weaver,et al.  Outcome quality of small- to medium- sized enterprise-based alliances: The role of perceived partner behaviors , 1998 .

[84]  Micheal J. Kelly,et al.  Managing Alliance Relationships: Key Challenges in the Early Stages of Collaboration , 2002 .

[85]  Richard C. Dorf,et al.  Technology Ventures from Idea to Enterprise , 2004 .