Firms are increasingly engaging in alliance portfolios/networks -AP/Nets -to leverage their innovation performance -IP -and thus boost their competitiveness. Most studies, with a few exceptions especially from emerging countries, found a positive relationship between AP/Net and IP, depending on portfolio characteristics and firm absorptive capacity -AC. This article undertakes an empirical investigation of the AP/Net -IP relationship and AC´s potentially moderating role in this relationship in an emerging country: Brazil. Statistical testing of hypotheses regarding these relationships, and AC´s role, corroborated the exceptions. However, it confirmed how important it is that firms in an emerging country ensure a high level of AC to mitigate the negative effects of AP/Net diversity on IP. Some managerial and policy implications were also formulated.
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