| Strategic Alliances and Product Development: An Emprical Study of the U.S. Semiconductor Start-up Firms |
| | Chen, Roger | U. of San Francisco | chenr@usfca.edu | (415)-422-6546 |
| | Li, Mingfang | California State U., Northridge | mli@csun.edu | 818-677-2421 |
| | New product development assumes an important role in an organization's strategy and its long term success. Strategic alliances are also widely used. The linkage between the two then becomes an important research topic. Based on the strategic alliance and organizational learning literature, this study theorized and empirically tested the linkage between key dimensions of strategic alliances and new product development. The empirical analysis of semiconductor firms reveals that actively accessing technology helps new product development, while accessing or providing R&D not only fails to benefit a firm's product development, it can be detrimental to a firm's new product development. In addition, the openness of alliance partners will help new product development. Contributions, practical implications and future research are considered. |
| | Keywords: New Product Development; Strategic Alliances; Organizational learning |
| Strategic Alliances and Firm Growth in Schumpeterian Competition |
| | Lee, Jeho | Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology | jlee@kgsm.kaist.ac.kr | 82 2 958 3678 |
| | Park, Seung-Ho | Rutgers U. | park@everest.rutgers.edu | 732 445-4458 |
| | Ryu, Young | U. of Texas, Dallas | ryoung@utdallas.edu | (972) 883-4065 |
| | This paper utilizes a computer simulation model to examine whether cost-sharing R&D alliances are conducive to long-term survival
of the partners under the increasing-returns regime of Shumpeterian competition. Despite a recent surge of interest on strategic alliances,
there is still little understanding of long-term gains in R&D alliances. The simulation results present a surprising outcome that casts doubt
on the long-term attractiveness of alliances compared to independent research. Managing innovations through strategic alliances appears
to be a losing game, particularly when the primary motive of collaboration is to share costs. Collaborating firms are less likely to survive
than non-collaborating firms at least in the long run due to the welfare loss and conflicts between partners. Collaborative research offers
advantage only when the welfare loss and alliance costs become very small. The simulation results confirm that long-term outcomes of
strategic alliances, in particular cost-saving alliances, depend on successful management of conflicts that arise in the process of
collaboration. |
| | Keywords: Strategic alliances; Schumpeterian competition; Firm growth |
| Task Partitioning, Communication Activities, and the Performance of Supplier Relations in New Product Development: An Empirical Analysis |
| | Sobrero, Maurizio | U. of Bologna | mau@economia.unibo.it | +39-051-258076 |
| | Toulan, Omar Nohad | McGill U. | toulan@management.mcgill.ca | (514)-398-4036 |
| | Supplier involvement in new product development projects is increasingly being used as a way for leveraging external knowledge quickly and at lower costs. Despite an almost global growing support for such practices, however, the organizational implications of alternative solutions as to the structuring of joint problem solving activities or communication flows among the partners are still largely unexplored. In this paper we present a study conducted in the Fall of 1998 within the Volvo Car Corporation (VCC) on 47 relationships with suppliers for the development of components for one of its base engines. We build on design and organizational contingency theories to show that a systemic fit between supplier's competencies and responsibilities positively affect its performance within the project. Moreover, we analyze and discuss the distribution of relationship specific knowledge as well as relationship management practices as critical areas of managerial attention to efficiently leverage the resources involved. |
| | Keywords: supplier relations; new product development; communication patterns |
| Sourcing Strategies in New Product Development: Trade-Offs Between Internal and External Learning |
| | Kessler, Eric H. | Pace U. | ekessler@fsmail.pace.edu | (212)-346-1846 |
| | Bierly, Paul E. | James Madison U. | bierlype@jmu.edu | (540)-568-3236 |
| | Gopalakrishnan, Shanthi | Fairleigh Dickinson U. | sgopalakr@alpha.fdu.edu | (201)-692-7231 |
| | The purpose of this study was to investigate how different technology sourcing strategies throughout the new product development process influence innovation speed, development costs, and competitive advantage. Hypotheses are derived from literature on the knowledge-based view of the firm that suggest important differences and key trade-offs between internal and external approaches to learning. We studied 75 new product development projects from ten large, U.S.-based companies in several industries. Results indicate several interesting findings: (1) more external sourcing during the early (i.e., idea generation) stage of the new product development process was related with lower competitive success; (2) more external sourcing during the later (i.e., technological development) stage of new product development process was related with slower innovation speed; and (3) development costs tended to rise with greater reliance on external sources of technology, but these results were not statistically significant. |
| | Keywords: New product development; Learning; Sourcing strategies |