The extent of knowledge complementarities (KC) is an important theoretical and practical issue in interfirm relationships. However, extant research on KC is not clear about what constitutes KC and how the benefits of KC are realized. Further, few empirical studies have examined the impact of KC on inter-firm performance. The purpose of this study is to identify the dimensions of KC and to empir...

Supply chain management systems (SCMS) championed by network leaders in their supplier networks are now ubiquitous. While prior studies have examined the benefits to network leaders from these systems, little attention has been paid to the benefits to supplier firms. This study draws from organizational theories of learning and action and transaction cost theory to propose a model relating supp...

The recent surge of interfirm cooperative agreements can be seen to express a way for firms to respond to and organize market failure, especially in technology markets. The incentives for firms to internalize activities are to avoid the disadvantages, or capitalize on the advantages, of imperfections or disequilibria in external mechanisms of resource allocation. The purpose of this paper is to...

We argue that the stock of prior alliances between participants in the biotechnology sector forms a network that serves as a governance mechanism in interfirm transactions. To test how this network substitutes for other governance mechanisms, we examine how equity participation and pledged funding in strategic alliances vary with two features of the way alliance participants are positioned in t...

This paper reports the findings of a study conducted among 450 European buyers and suppliers in manufacturing regarding their relationship with their trading partners. Particularly, the focus is on whether and how asymmetry in the power position of two trading partners affects the level of inter-firm learning and the moderating role of interfirm trust. Results indicate that power differentials ...

Based on recent field survey data collected in three African countries, this study examines interfirm and inter-organizational collaboration in African industry. Three sets of interactions were analyzed namely: firm-firm linkages, including user-supplier and subcontracting relationships; firm-university linkages; and firm-industrial association linkages. Employing univariate and multivariate an...

I study how strategic alliances and their impact on future competitive incentives can motivate interfirm equity sales. In the model, an alliance between an entrepreneurial firm and an established firm improves efficiency for both. However, the requisite knowledge transfer heightens the established firm’s incentive to enter one of its partner’s markets. I show that equity can eliminate the entry...