When does knowledge acquisition in R&D alliances increase new product development? The moderating roles of technological relatedness and productmarket competition. Research Policy, 45(1), pp. 291-302.

Research Summary: Extant research suggests that firms rationally evaluate external and/or internal contingencies when deciding how to reconfigure their alliance portfolios.We advance a behavioral perspective which assumes that managers are boundedly rational and thus rely on behavioral heuristics when making alliance portfolio reconfiguration decisions. In panel data on U.S.-listed biotechnology firms, we find that below-aspiration performance motivates a firm to form alliances with novel partners within the resource scope of its existing alliance portfolio. This effect is weakened by equity ties with existing partners and strengthened by firm-specific uncertainty. Conversely, above-aspiration performance leads to

We discuss the 'gloomy' side of firms' embeddedness in networks of inter-firm partnerships. We propose a nested understanding of the effects of three levels of overembeddednessenvironmental, inter-organizational and dyadic overembeddedness-on subsequent inter-firm partnership formation and argue for a joint examination of these three levels and their interactions over time. As a whole, increases in firms' embeddedness will generate decreasing returns to the firms involved, prompting (i) the search for and attachment to novel partners and (ii) the dissolution of extant partnerships. On the flipside, overembeddedness thus sparks network evolution-by cueing firms to look beyond their embedded partnerships.

Abstract:This article extends the understanding of what impels buyers to contact particular sellers in online business-to-business (B2B) marketplaces, which are typically characterized by sparse social structures and concomitant limitations in observing social cues. Integrating an institutional perspective with signaling theory, our core argument is that offline seller characteristics that are visible online-in particular, geographic location and legal statusconvey credible signals of seller behavior because they provide buyers with information on sellers' local institutional quality and the institutionallyinduced obligations and controls acting on sellers. Using unique data from a large Italian online B2B marketplace between the fourth quarter of 1999 and July 2001, we find that both sellers' local institutional quality and their legal statuses affect a buyer's likelihood of contacting a seller. Moreover, consistent with the idea that a buyer's own local institutional quality generates a relevant reference point against which sellers are evaluated, we find that a buyer is progressively more likely to contact sellers the higher their local institutional quality relative to the buyer. Jointly, our findings imply that in online B2B marketplaces, signals conveyed by sellers' geographic locations and legal statuses may be substantive sources of competitive heterogeneity and market segmentation. Academy of Management JournalThe Forthcoming, Academy of Management Journal * Both authors contributed equally to the research in this article. Associate Editor Heli Wang provided excellent guidance and three anonymous reviewers provided detailed and constructive comments and suggestions. We thank the B2B marketplace for sharing proprietary data, Kaizad Doctor for research assistance, Francesco Calderoni for advice on the measurement of corruption and organized crime in Italy, Enrico Spaziani at the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) for advice on Italian territorial statistics, and Marco Bitetto, Daniela Latorre, and Tecla Ubaldi for generous advice on Italian commercial law. We also thank Argyro Avgoustaki, Charles Baden-Fuller, Mariachiara Barzotto, Gokhan Ertug, Igor Filatotchev, Santi Furnari, Stefan Haefliger, Wilko Letterie, Joanne Oxley, Carol Saunders, and audiences at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, HEC Lausanne, Singapore Management University, University of Groningen, and Warwick Business School for helpful comments and discussions related to this article. A predecessor version of this study was presented at the 2013 Academy of Management Annual Conference in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. During part of the research for this article, Gianvito Lanzolla was a Visiting Scholar at London Business School and Hans Frankort was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Toronto's Joseph L. Rotman School of Management. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support received at these two institutions.

Implications of work effort and discretion for employee well-being and career-related outcomes: an integrative assessment. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 72(3), pp. 636-661.