How much does the firm's alliance network matter?

Abstract

titioning the variance in firm (business segment) profitability has identified industry, corporate parent, business segment, and time as key sources. However, this variance decomposition research stream has treated firms as atomistic, autonomous entities. We employ a fast-unfolding community-detection algorithm to detect firms' network memberships and use the Shapley Value method to isolate the effect of the firm's alliance network, in addition to industry, corporate parent, business segment, and year effects, on the variance in business unit performance.Our findings demonstrate that the effect of the firm's alliance network explains 11% of the variance in firm ROA among 16,381 business segments from 1979 through 1996. We also extend the time period through 2018 and find that our results broadly hold. Managerial Summary: In the search for superior firm performance, managers typically focus their attention externally on profitable industries in which to operate, as well as internally on their firms' idiosyncratic and valuable resources and capabilities. In addition to these profitability sources, our work suggests another important, but heretofore overlooked, factor in the managerial quest for competitive advantage: the value-creating potential of alliance networks. We employ a machine-learning

Managing Knowledge in Romanian KIBS during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…KIBS firms increase their competitiveness and portfolio following various project and cooperation mechanisms as part of networks of business transactions. Also, strategic alliances are a relevant factor in ensuring a company's performance [38] Therefore, in times of crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, KIBS could be part of the resilience system, but also their agility might help not only themselves but also their network and clients to better cope with the new and significant challenges. These outcomes are connected to an effective knowledge management (KM) approach that KIBS could provide.…”

Exploring the role of external pressure, environmental sustainability commitment, engagement, alliance and circular supply chain capability in circular economy performance

“…Network theory (NT) suggests that firms that lack resources and knowledge can have access to external resources and a pool of inter-firm capabilities to enhance performance through a network of external alliance (Dyer and Singh, 1998; Lavie, 2007; Kumar et al. , 2022).…”

“…Network theory (NT) suggests that firms that lack resources and knowledge can have access to external resources and a pool of inter-firm capabilities to enhance performance through a network of external alliance (Dyer and Singh, 1998;Lavie, 2007;Kumar et al, 2022). In Ghana, SMEs depend on stakeholders to obtain additional resources and knowledge to implement sustainability practices (Agyabeng-Mensah et al, 2022) and learn from partners to acquire knowledge to develop ENC and ACA (Anning-Dorson and Nyamekye, 2020;Takyi et al, 2022).…”

Enhancing technology innovation performance through alliance capability: The role of standard alliance network and political skill of TMTs

“…An alliance is a contract-based organizational structure that breaks down the boundaries of an enterprise ( Li, 2013 ) and helps enterprises get the technical knowledge and market resources required for development ( Perez and Soete, 1988 ; Lee and Malerba, 2017 ; Zeng et al, 2019 ; Babu et al, 2020 ). For example, Lenovo, a core member of the Intelligent Grouping and Resource Sharing (IGRS) Alliance, and its alliance members jointly developed the “3C cooperative international standards,” which helped it capitalize on the 3C market, making many enterprises realize that significant economic benefits exist to cross organizational boundaries and in coordinating external innovation resources ( Kumar et al, 2022 ). A standard alliance is a special type of strategic alliance between enterprises with independent research and development (R&D) capabilities and key technologies at their core, so that they and their partners can, together, initiate and spread standards ( Axelrod et al, 1995 ).…”