A Framework for Understanding New Product Alliance Success

In this paper, the authors propose a model that extends current knowledge of firm interaction within new product alliances while identifying factors that influence the success of such relationships. Much work focused on market orientation in the 1990s, but recent research in marketing management and strategy shifted to other topics, thus, important issues have been neglected by the research community. Theoretical foundations drawn from social exchange theory and the dynamic capabilities view offer a framework for examining the influence of organizational factors, joint alliance factors, and relational factors on interfirm relationships under various external and internal environmental contexts relevant to current and emerging environmental conditions. Alliance market orientation is introduced as a key variable that moderates the relationship between the alliance factors and new product alliance performance, external environmental factors moderate the relationships between organizational factors and joint alliance factors, and relational factors moderate both sets of relationships. The proposed conceptual model offers a foundation for investigating the patterns of influence between firm- and alliance-level variables on new product alliance performance. The authors conclude with recommendations for empirically testing and extending this model in future research.

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