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In an effort to reconcile theoretical 'blind spots,' we integrated research in technology management, organizational ecology, and evolutionary economics. The central premise underlying the resultant model is that time conditions the effects of age, contemporaneous size, order of entry, and contemporaneous density on mortality rates. We tested our hypotheses using a life cycle approach and data on 33 product innovations that span most of the 20th century. Results resoundingly support our central thesis on the impact of time on both survival rates and relationships previously thought to be universalistic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends entrepreneurship into the domain of alliances, and investigates the effect of alliance proactiveness on market-based firm performance (defined in terms of sales growth, market share, market development and product development). Alliance proactiveness is defined as the extent to which an organization engages in identifying and responding to partnering opportunities. The effect of alliance proactiveness on performance is tested within a contingency framework, with size and perceived environmental uncertainly as moderators, and using data from 182 firms. We estimated the model using partial least squares. Results indicate that alliance proactiveness leads to superior market-based performance, and that this effect is stronger for small firms and in unstable market environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Summary: The literature on technological alliances emphasizes that search for knowledge drives alliance formation. However, in conceptualizing technological knowledge, prior work on alliances has not made a distinction between domain knowledge—knowledge that firms possess in distinct technological domains—and architectural knowledge—knowledge that firms possess about how to combine elements from different technological domains. We argue that firms seek partners that are similar in domain knowledge to deepen their knowledge, and partners that are dissimilar in architectural knowledge to broaden their knowledge. Our results indicate that the likelihood of alliance formation increases when two firms are similar in domain knowledge and dissimilar in architectural knowledge. Further, our results show that these effects are positively moderated by the degree of decomposability of a firm's knowledge base. Managerial Summary: In dynamic environments, companies need to continually deepen and broaden their technological knowledge, and they often look for alliance partners who can provide them that knowledge. For knowledge deepening, companies are more likely to form alliances with those companies that have expertise in similar technological fields. For knowledge broadening, they are more likely to form alliances with those companies that have expertise in the same technological fields, but have different recipes for combining knowledge from those fields. Furthermore, a company with a modular knowledge base is more likely to seek a partner that has expertise in similar technological fields or whose recipes for combining knowledge from different technological fields are different from the recipes it has. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While overseas acquisitions by emerging-economy firms are gaining increase attention from the business press, our understanding of whether and why this inorganic mode of international expansion creates value to acquirer firms is limited. We argue that international acquisitions facilitate internalization of tangible and intangible resources that are both difficult to trade through market transactions and take time to develop internally, thus constituting an important strategic lever of value creation for emerging-economy firms. Furthermore, the magnitude of value created will be higher when the target firms are located in advanced economic and institutional environments: country markets that carry the promise of higher quality of resources, and therefore, stronger complementarity to the existing capabilities of emerging-economy firms. An event study of 425 cross-border acquisitions by India firms during 2000-2007 supports our predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]