国际金融危机潜在传染源的识别及其传染力分析

亚洲金融危机和希腊债务危机表明中小国家也可以引发严重危机，这种现象不容忽视。基于复杂网络理论，使用2007年国际贸易数据构建了包含148个国家和地区的全球宏观经济网络；利用S.I.R模型模拟了各国在发生不同等级的金融危机时所影响到的国家数量和经济总量，发现不同国家传染力的差异存在一定的区域特征，许多经济总量不大的国家也具有引发严重危机的潜力；使用动态聚类法对各国的传染力进行分类，处于类别1至类别4的国家为国际金融危机潜在传染源；通过计算传染力与GDP、进口和网络拓扑结构指标的Spearman相关系数发现，GDP、进口较大以及聚类系数小的国家在低危机等级时就表现出一定的负面溢出；而贸易伙伴较多以及处于网络中心位置的国家在较高的危机等级下具备引发严重危机的潜力；使用2009年的数据进行模拟，本文的主要结论依然稳健。     

Power imbalance and value creation in joint ventures

Joint ventures (JVs) often do not create expected value due to power imbalance between partners. Despite the fact that JV partners are embedded in relational constraints, prior research has largely relied on economic reasoning by focusing on equity ownership difference between JV partners as the main source of power imbalance. We extend prior research to also consider important relational factors represented by repeated ties between partners and network openness, as well as institutional status difference and network status difference as two additional dimensions of power imbalance. Our findings indicate that ownership power imbalance by itself does not have a significant effect on value creation. However, value creation is facilitated when there is ownership power imbalance between partners with more repeated ties. In contrast, value creation may be hindered when JV partners with unequal ownership are embedded in more open interfirm alliance networks. Furthermore, value creation is facilitated if JV partners that have unequal ownership also have network status power imbalance in the same direction.     

International alliance formation and stock market responses:: Industry globalization as an environmental contingency

This study examines the effects of the degree of industry globalization on international alliance formation in terms of the type of alliance chosen by partner firms and stock market responses to the chosen type of alliance. Using a sample of 244 international alliances formed between U.S. and non-U.S. firms for the 1992–97 period, we find that nonjoint venture (joint venture) alliances take place relatively more frequently in global (multidomestic) industries than in multidomestic (global) industries. We also find that in global industries, abnormal returns to nonjoint venture partners are relatively greater than those to joint venture partners, whereas in multidomestic industries, abnormal returns to nonjoint venture partners are relatively smaller, though insignificant, than those to joint venture partners. Our findings suggest that the degree of industry globalization plays an important role in explaining which type of international alliance is likely to be chosen by partner firms when entering an alliance and how stock markets tend to respond to the chosen type of alliance.     

Heterogeneity,diversity and complementarity in alliance portfolios

The divergence that a firm manages to achieve because of its partners is a fundamental question in an alliance portfolio configuration. Diversity can refer not only to the differences between the focal firm and its partners or between the partners themselves but also to the differences arising from various resource endowments in the alliance portfolio. Understanding the significance of these different sources, how they interrelate, and how they affect the firm performance is an unresolved question as unclear definitions and opposing arguments are proposed. This paper expounds the concepts of partner heterogeneity, alliance portfolio diversity, and network resource complementarity to gain a deeper comprehension of the alliance portfolio configuration and how it affects performance. Our analysis of airline alliances at a global level reveals the central role of resource complementarity in the focal firm performance.     

资源依赖、网络中心度与多方联盟构建——基于产业电子商务平台的实证研究

以资源依赖理论和社会网络理论为依据,以产业电子商务平台为实证背景,深入分析了影响企业加入多方联盟的决定因素。实证研究表明,企业是否加入多方联盟主要受2方面因素的影响:资源依赖和网络结构中心度。企业对新联盟的资源依赖程度越高,在社会网络中的中心度越高,其加入多方联盟的概率越大。这种经济考虑和社会考虑同时存在,共同作用于企业的战略抉择。     

Network Embeddedness in Exploration and Exploitation of Joint R&D Projects: A Structural Approach

This paper analyses how network embeddedness affects the exploration and exploitation of R&D project performance. By developing joint projects, partners and projects are linked to one another and form a network that generates social capital. We examine how the location, which determines the access to information and knowledge within a network of relationships, affects the performance of projects. We consider this question in the setup of exploration and exploitation projects, using a database built from an EU framework. We find that each of the structural embeddedness dimensions (degree, betweenness and eigenvector centrality) have a different impact on the exploration and exploitation project performance. Our empirical analysis extends to project management literature and social capital theory, by including the effect that the acquisition of external knowledge has on the performance of the project.     

Technological alliance portfolio configuration and firm performance

Firms pursuing technological alliances to gain competitive advantages have become a ubiquitous phenomenon in today’s business environment. This article examines which technological alliance portfolio configuration is better for focal firm performance using a portfolio rather than a dyadic perspective. To assess technological alliance portfolio effects on Korean pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, we adopted three explanatory variables—number of alliances, number of partners, and spanning structural holes. The growth rate of revenue and the growth rate of profit are used as dependent variables. We identify two characteristics of technological alliance portfolios from the two-step generalized method of moments estimates. First, we find that between two firms with the same number of alliances, the firm with the larger number of partners would have a better performance. This result is unlike those in previous studies because it distinguishes between the number of alliances and number of partners based on the network theory. Second, we find that spanning structural holes affects firm performance rather like a double-edge sword—it positively affects the growth rate of profit but negatively affects the growth rate of revenue of firms. In short, spanning structural holes is simultaneously beneficial for firm profitability and unfavorable for firm growth. This result differs from those of earlier studies because it shows that a firm spanning structural holes among alliance partners produces either a positive or a negative effect, suggesting that a firm should vary its strategy depending on whether it prioritizes profitability or growth.     

Making more of alliance portfolios: The role of alliance portfolio coordination

Alliance portfolios enable firms to access and integrate multiple resources from different, simultaneous partners. We assess the extent to which alliance portfolio coordination benefits focal firms along three alliance portfolio characteristics: alliance portfolio size, the complementarity of the resources available through the portfolio, and the degree to which relation-specific investments are made across the portfolio. Based on a questionnaire completed by 444 Dutch companies, we found that the three portfolio characteristics play an important role in creating benefits for focal firms through their portfolios. Additionally, our findings suggest that alliance portfolio coordination is an important element in dealing with the challenge of managing portfolios, in that it shapes the effect of the other portfolio characteristics.     

The Impact of Alliance Management Capabilities on Alliance Attributes and Performance: A Literature Review

The literature on alliances has identified a variety of inter‐firm antecedents of performance, including information and knowledge sharing between partners, shared partner understanding, and a focus on collective objectives. Recent studies have focused on alliance management capabilities (AMC) – firms' abilities to capture, share, store and apply alliance management knowledge – as an important antecedent of performance. This paper reviews 90 studies on AMC and makes two important contributions to the literature. First, the review provides an overview of and classification scheme for the different types of AMC to better organise the diverse empirical findings that have been presented in the literature. The novel classification distinguishes between general and partner‐specific AMC and between AMC stored within the firm and within the alliance. Second, consistent with the dynamic capabilities perspective, this paper offers a more detailed understanding of why AMC improve performance, by highlighting the intermediate impact of AMC on alliance attributes. In particular, the review demonstrates how the different categories of AMC influence alliances in terms of information and knowledge‐sharing between partners, shared partner understanding and the pursuit of collective goals. The review also demonstrates that these attributes improve performance. The authors note promising avenues for future empirical research that involve combining the classification scheme with research on the impact of AMC on alliance attributes and performance.     

Learning from international business affiliates: developing resource-based learning capacity through networks and knowledge acquisition

Resource-based learning capacity (RBLC) is an organization's specific resources – both human and tangible – that can be organized to enhance learning processes. This study develops and tests a model that examines the relationship between the learning efforts of focal firms from their international business affiliates (IBAs) – organizations located outside the focal firm's domestic market with whom the focal firm has a relationship – and the focal firms' RBLC. This learning process refers to the transfer of knowledge from the IBA to the focal firm. Results indicate that while learning effectiveness positively influences the RBLC of the focal firm, learning efficiency has a negative impact on RBLC. The IBA's home country network centrality and the tie strength between the focal organization and the IBA are found to influence learning effectiveness positively. Tie strength also enhances learning efficiency. Finally, the findings indicate that the IBA's home country network centrality enhances the strength of the ties between the focal organization and its IBA.     

Survival during a Crisis: Alliances by Singapore Firms

In this study, we focus on the under‐researched issue of how environmental shocks impact alliance survival. We draw from several different theoretical perspectives such as industrial organization economics, managerial theories of the firm (such as agency theory) and institutional theories. We argue that the relationship between the occurrence of environmental shock and alliance survival is a contingent one. Specifically, we hypothesize that the following types of alliances will exhibit better likelihood of survival: alliances that yield a balance of short‐term and long‐term benefits (scale alliances) rather than purely long‐term benefits (link alliances); alliances that lead to either cost reduction or near‐term improvement in revenue realization (marketing alliances); and alliances that bring together partners from different economic regions (those involving Western and Asian partners). Based on an analysis of 348 alliances formed by Singapore firms, we find that marketing alliances and those involving at least one Western partner indeed exhibit a better likelihood of survival during the Asian economic crisis. We conclude that alliances that can enhance revenue potential in the short‐term are more robust to environmental shocks and that alliances can benefit from an effect similar to risk reduction through international diversification.     

Inter‐Firm R&D Networks: the Importance of Strategic Network Capabilities for High‐Tech Partnership Formation1

We examine the role of different network capabilities of companies that influence the formation of R&D partnerships in pharmaceutical biotechnology. Strategic network capabilities, specifically centrality‐based capabilities and the efficiency with which companies choose their partners, are found to facilitate the formation of new partnerships. Unlike general experience with partnering, these strategic network capabilities play a crucial role in enabling companies to continue to interact with other companies through partnerships in a complex network setting.     

A risk perception model of alliance structuring

The literature on the strategic alliance structuring process does not provide an adequate view of the role of decision-makers in that process, especially about how alliance partners form their structural preferences. Given the critical role of structure in alliance management, the decision-making process regarding the choice of an appropriate alliance structure deserves particular research attention. We propose a model of strategic alliance structuring that has managerial risk perception as its core. Our model consists of the following parts: the antecedents of risk perception, relational risk and performance risk, risk perception and structural preference, and the resolution of preferences. We suggest that the structural preferences of partners are based on their perceptions of relational risk and performance risk, and the overall objective is to minimize the total risk. We also develop a number of propositions as elaboration of the model to facilitate empirical research and the effective management of the structuring process.     

Dynamic evolution of alliance portfolios

This research advances in the conceptualization and the operationalization of the factors or microdynamics that determine the choice of partners. Most of the literature in this area of research has centered on the individual alliance without taking into account the set of alliances that a firm makes. This research applies a holistic approach, analyzing the set of alliances as a whole and points to the factors related to alliance portfolios that affect the choice of partners. The authors propose a longitudinal model that allows us to analyze the evolution of interorganizational networks. A Simulation Investigation for Empirical Network Analysis (SIENA) has been applied to a sample of 229 firms, analyzing 10,556 strategic alliances established between them over a 12 year period. The results show that certain factors over which managers exercise a degree of control (deliberate endogenous microdynamics) exert significant influences on the choice of partners by the focal actor and thereby on the dynamic configuration of alliance portfolios.     

基于监管、学习和声誉的联盟稳定性:实验研究

借鉴实验经济学的研究方法,研究了监管、学习和声誉机制对联盟成员机会主义行为的影响。实验用囚徒困境模型表示联盟成员间的合作竞争关系,通过控制监管力度,逐步引入学习机制和声誉机制来比较分析各机制的作用及关系。结果表明,监管越完善,越有利于控制机会主义行为,但其成本也越高;学习机制的引入,可以进一步减少机会主义行为,但联盟中的学习者也可借助信息优势,在监管严格时回避风险,在监管放松时采取机会主义行为获取短期超额收益;声誉机制的加入使得机会主义行为进一步减少,联盟企业借助信息优势获取超额收益的副作用也被消除。     

Disentangling the role of knowledge similarity on the choice of alliance structure

This paper examines the effect of knowledge similarity on the choice of alliance structure in the biotechnology industry. Knowledge similarity between two alliance partners has implications for both integrating and protecting knowledge. Alliance partners have incentives to select the alliance structure that maximizes efficiency in integrating knowledge. Likewise, alliance partners have incentives to select the alliance structure that protects appropriable knowledge. We draw upon the arguments of the knowledge accessing theory and causal ambiguity perspectives as well as the transaction cost economics perspective to predict the role of knowledge similarity on the choice of alliance structure. We empirically test the role of technological overlap and technological component on alliance structures-equity based versus non-equity based. The empirical results show that as technological overlap increases and technological component exists, the probability of equity based alliance structure increases.     

Improving the Progress of Research & Development (R&D) Projects by Selecting an Optimal Alliance Structure and Partner Type

This paper extends the study of alliance governance structure by examining what alliance structure, coordination mechanisms and partner type best enhance the likelihood of Research and Development (R&D) progress or performance. We specially focus on the coordination and interaction mechanism of alliances, through which we classify the alliance governance structures in order to reflect the more complex alliance types and contracts used in today's R&D. Using data from 255 biopharmaceuticals between the years 2000 and 2004, we found that, ceteris paribus, a moderate degree of inter‐partner interaction and a moderately complex (non‐equity‐based) alliance contract contributes more to a better R&D alliance performance than those structures that are too simple or too organizationally embedded (e.g. equity joint ventures), which possibly increase the risk of misalignment and miscommunication between allies. In addition, due to the reduced opportunism and the diverse resource (e.g. technology) pooled in the alliance, allying with diverse organizational partners such as non‐profit research institutes and universities is more likely to enhance the R&D performance. Our findings provide insightful strategic implications to practitioners in designing an appropriate alliance governance structure and choosing the right partner type for a successful R&D collaboration.     

Resource utilization as an internal driver of alliance portfolio evolution: The Qatar Airways case (1993–2010)

This article aims to understand the role played by resource utilization levels as a driver of alliance portfolio evolution over time. Based on our theoretical framework and on a case study of Qatar Airways (199.3–2010), we develop insights into the micro-dynamics of resource structuring in firms that possess an alliance portfolio. Our research shows that firms can create either their own or network resources with different deployment modes according to their resource utilization levels to remain profitable. We also emphasize that optimized resource utilization is a key driver of resource-structuring efforts in firms. Finally, we show that based on the focal firm's life cycle phase, the level of resource utilization changes and leads to various resource-structuring mechanisms that can be observed at the alliance portfolio level.     

Agent and Task Complexity in Multilateral Alliances: The Safeguarding Role of Equity Governance

Multilateral alliances are an inherently complex organizational form; managing these complexities is particularly difficult for alliance partners because alliances are plagued by both internal and external uncertainty. Using insights from transaction cost economics, our study identifies, articulates and tests different forms of alliance complexity and their impacts on alliance governance structure. Specifically, we investigate two forms of alliance complexity: agent and task. We decompose agent complexity into organizational and partner complexity, and decompose task complexity into geographic, transaction and technological complexity. Using a sample of 327 trilateral alliances, the most frequent form of multilateral alliances, we find that three forms of alliance complexity involving internal uncertainty (organizational, partner and technological complexity) favor equity-based governance, whereas external uncertainty in the form of geographic complexity discourages equity-based governance.     

Too much of a good thing? Alliance portfolio size and alliance expansion

Drawing from the organizational learning, transactions costs and resource based theories, we argue that the larger the Alliance Portfolio Size (APS) of the partners, the lower the likelihood that the alliance will be expanded. We also argue for an interactive effect by proposing that high levels of experience will neutralize some (but not all) of the detrimental impact of a large APS on the likelihood of alliance expansion. We deploy the case-control methodology to select a sample of 182 alliances from the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries spanning the period 1980–2004. Results from logistic regression analyses support our predictions.