The role of strategic alliances in high-technology new product development

The authors examined 905 new product innovations introduced since September 1988 to determine the influences on product innovativeness, with a specific interest in strategic alliances, or cooperative strategies. Findings suggest that single firms, horizontal cooperative strategies, small and mixed'sized firms, biochemical industries, cross-industry product offerings, cross-industry cooperations, the progression of time, and European firms tend to indicate significantly more innovative products. Implications are proposed for business practitioners and researchers with specific application to the diffusion of innovation.     

房地产开发成本与销售的会计核算

我国房地产业在经历了狂热和低迷的大起大落后,随着社会主义市场经济的发展,目前正处于复苏阶段,为使房地产开发逐渐走向有序化、规范化,必须加强房地产开发企业的会计核算.     

企业网络会计信息系统建设及其发展对策研究

本文结合湖南省电力公司网络会计信息系统建设的实际,提出了存在的问题以及指出了五点发展对策,并展望了网络会计信息系统的发展前景。     

会计电算化的ASP发展模式

互联网已经给传统会计理论带来了新的发展,这种发展必然会带来实务的变化。跨地域的、实时的会计信息处理将成为网络时代会计信息生产的最基本要求,这种网络会计模式也将使得会计真正成为一项管理活动,因为其数据将更及时、有用。结合电子商务、电子货币和电子结算而来的网络财务、网络会计的发展,其中颇具生命力的是网上ASP的发展。     

关于企业会计核算制度改革与发展的探讨

企业会计核算制度的改革与发展问题,是我国会计改革的主要内容。协调好基本会计准则、具体会计准则和会计制度的关系,完善会计制度体系和具体会计准则体系,建立一个完备的会计准则体系,应是我国企业会计核算制度改革与发展的方向。     

Innovating through alliances: expectations and limitations

Abstract
In this paper we have analysed the innovation processes occurring in several cross-industry technology partnerships in order to suggest some key managerial issues pertaining to the effectiveness of these increasingly popular initiatives. Our general proposition, based on an extensive literature review and clinical research, is that the managerial hurdles in partnerships frequently offset, and in some cases eliminate, the expected innovation advantages. We submit that there is a fundamental tension between the dynamics of innovation and the logic of partnering. The extent of the tension, however, depends on the nature of the innovation project and on the characteristics of the partnership. Thus we recommend that managers involved in the formation of joint-R&D agreements should carry out an innovation-partnering assessment to design an appropriate management structure that would minimise the 'tension'. Lastly, we suggest some ingredients for carrying out such an assessment, and directions for further research.
Alliances seem to be today's answer to most management challenges. As recent surveys show, companies all over the world are forming partnerships to alleviate difficulties met in nearly every business activity —design, manufacturing, distribution, service… (e.g. Hergert & Morris, 1987; Urban, 1989), The popularity of such strategic initiatives in the 1980's has led to a dramatic increase in the number as well as in the forms of alliances (Hagedoorn and Schakenraad, 1990).     

Building capabilities to manage strategic alliances

Recently, academics have attributed a large part of alliance success to a firm's ability to successfully manage its alliances, also called its level of alliance management capability. We contribute to this growing body of literature by (1) verifying the impact of alliance management capability on alliance performance and (2) analyzing the drivers of alliance management capability. We measure this capability through four types of alliance learning processes and study how each of these processes affects alliance outcome. Furthermore, we take into account several possible drivers of alliance management capability such as organizational culture, commitment of the top team, alliance experience and the alliance function. We refine the results by examining how these factors affect each of the four learning processes underpinning alliance management capability. Our research model will be tested on a sample of 189 Belgian companies using PLS. We find that the commitment of the top management team is the most critical factor in explaining success with alliances.     

Learning: The interface of quality management and strategic alliances

In this paper, we investigate the practice of quality management in strategic alliances. By employing a relational view of inter-organizational competitive advantage, the paper addresses the concept of quality management in strategic alliances and networks. We argue that institutional/network relationships influence the practice of quality within a network. In that regard, firms that have adopted quality management practices are more effective in managing and coordinating their interactions with other firms in the network, which results in their enhanced learning capability within the alliance.The proposed framework recognizes the role of trust and cooperative learning as critical factors that affect the success of strategic alliances. It has been argued that firms within an alliance need to achieve the paradox of control and learning. We examine the role of trust as a control mechanism in strategic alliances and address the importance of cooperative learning within alliances. Several hypotheses have been proposed and future research has been outlined.     

Resource allocation for open and hidden learning in learning alliances

A satisfying relationship between alliance members is important for the success of learning alliances, especially those in the Asia Pacific region. While learning alliances create conditions for firms to leverage each other’s knowledge, firms may be opportunistic and appropriate each other’s knowledge, and firms face a tradeoff because appropriation affects the relationship between alliance members. After reviewing previous studies on knowledge sharing in learning alliances, we differentiate firms’ learning into open and hidden learning, and argue that open learning contributes to competence trust, while hidden learning reduces goodwill trust, which consequently affects open learning. Learning uncertainty, introduced in this study, and learning benefits determine expected payoffs of open and hidden learning, which influence firms’ resource investment in them. This study also finds that behavior and output control are important moderators of the relationships between expected payoffs of open and hidden learning and the resources invested in them. Thus, this study advances our understanding of the tension between cooperation and competition and the learning dynamics in learning alliances. The solution to solving the knowledge sharing dilemma in learning alliances is to promote partners’ open learning and to restrain their hidden learning. Therefore, this study argues that, with open and hidden learning, implementing proper control measures and influencing partners’ learning benefits and uncertainties can settle this dilemma. Furthermore, this study classifies the relationships of learning alliances into four types and gives an explanation of why horizontal learning alliances are usually more competitive than vertical ones.     

The formation and evolution of non-equity strategic alliances in China

Contractual joint ventures (CJVs) are a major form of non-equity strategic alliance in China, employed mainly by Hong Kong firms in the south China province of Guangdong. Due to their ambiguous legal status and the lack of conceptualisation and of their contractual nature, there has been little empirical research on CJVs. By theorising CJVs as a relational subcontracting arrangement and drawing on data from structured interviews with managers from both sides, this paper reveals the managerial decisions pertaining to the formation and evolution of the CJV non-equity alliances in Guangdong.

Global marketing effectiveness via alliances and electronic commerce in business-to-business markets

Numerous changes in the global business climate have intensified global competition through new forms of competition as well as the addition of new competitors. As a result, domestic and international firms have to develop and implement marketing strategies that are aligned with the current global competitive realities. This study explores the influence of three overarching developments that stand out as having a dominating role in the shifting international competitive landscape: (1) the rapid growth of global business activities by existing firms and new entrants, for example, through increased international outsourcing (i.e., the intensification of importing activities); (2) the transition to managing supply chain systems through greater coordination of entire distribution channels, alliances, and relational exchanges; and (3) the emergence and increased strategic deployment of electronic forms of exchange, particularly with respect to information access, storage, and retrieval, as means of more efficient management of domestic and global network of operations and market intelligence. Managerial and research implications of these trends are discussed.     

Performance of alliances: formative stages and changing organizational and environmental influences

There is near unanimous agreement that the performance of alliances usually falls short of expectations. Studies have identified several generic reasons for poor performance: inadequate communication, lack of trust, insufficient complementarity of resources, inappropriate organizational structures and processes, and so on. While we broadly agree with these, knowledge of these self-evident reasons does not seem to have turned the tide of bad news in any way. We show in this paper that it is important to unpack a broad set of antecedent variables, including the ones identified above, and to track them over the crucial formative stages of an alliance. Based on our interviews with 24 senior and middle level managers and professionals of a focal company about 10 of its major alliances, we identify the following four formative stages of an alliance: (1) Recognition , (2) Research , (3) Relationship Set-up , and (4) Ramp up . We show that the primary predictors of success across these stages are not identical, nor their effect uniform. Further, proper completion of all the preceding stages is essential for the success of subsequent stages. We finally show that the compaction of the various successful stages, in particular of the Ramp-Up stage, is one of the best predictors of overall success of an alliance.     

Framing of international research alliances: influence on strategy

The need to access knowledge globally is increasingly driving organisations to form international research alliances. When partners in such alliances reside in different nations, respective government policies may impinge on the strategic development and structure of the alliance. In this paper, we discuss the impact of perceived policy stances on the alliance strategy of research and technology institutes (RTIs) and provide a framework for considering possible alliance strategies. We believe that the choice of alliance strategy will depend upon how the RTI 'frames' its government's policy stance. The influence of 'framing' on the development of research alliance strategy is illustrated with a case study of an alliance between a New Zealand RTI and an American high technology firm in the emerging superconductivity industry. The paper concludes with a discussion of how use of the alliance strategy framework may impact on organisational practice and the development and interpretation of government policy.     

A value-in-process analysis of relationship interactions in non-equity alliances

In the domain of relationship marketing, there is an increasing need for greater understanding of ‘value’ in the process of social exchange interactions. We present a framework for analysis of value creation through these interactions. Two types of value creating interaction are identified, asset specific investment and technical exchange. Taking a series of 197 project-based, non-equity alliances between architects and building contractors, we examine value creation through these interactions. The findings establish that value in the relationship process is co-created and that this occurs through an iterative investment in specific assets at the operational level throughout the alliance. Additionally, the exchange of technical information at the operational level is found to be a source of value for the relationship and has iterative and co-creational characteristics similar to investment in specific assets. We provide an explanation for the relationship between these interaction types and relational value. We also find that goodwill trust's positive relationship with the asset specific investment interaction type is stronger in low, rather than high, operational compatibility partnerships. The implications for researchers and managers are explored and study limitations acknowledged.     

Context effects in the evaluation of business-to-business brand alliances

Brand alliances in the business-to-business domain are becoming increasingly popular. This study investigates the impact of context-related effects on the formation of evaluation perceptions in B2B brand alliances. Assimilation and contrast effects represent the conceptual framework. Employing an experimental design we test the influence of two contextual factors on a range of product attributes: quality perceptions of the known brand ally (valence), and amount of information provided for the brand alliance. Using data collected from a cross section sample of large B2B UK companies we report assimilation effects across different product attributes of the alliance. Positive valence of the known brand ally results in higher evaluations of the brand alliance. In terms of provision of information, we find that, (a) unlike consumer markets, in the B2B domain higher evaluations are the result of detailed information, and (b) the impact of detailed information is significant only for tangible product attributes. Further, we find that valence of the known brand ally and amount of information provided are independent factors. The results add significantly to the knowledge on context effects in B2B brand alliances and lead to a number of managerial recommendations on partner selection and marketing communication of new brand alliances.     

Strategic alliances as social capital: a multidimensional view

Defining social capital in terms of the information benefits available to a firm due to its strategic alliances we present a theory of social capital that conceptualizes it as a multidimensional construct. We draw from the literature to argue that social capital yields three distinctly different kinds of information benefits in the form of information volume, information diversity, and information richness. This extends current theoretical and empirical research by specifying and empirically demonstrating three interrelated yet distinct dimensions of social capital. Firms vary in their levels of social capital not just on their structural position in an alliance network but also in the dynamics that underlie alliance formation and maintenance. More importantly, the different dimensions of social capital theoretically provide differential benefits. We establish the construct validity of our proposed three‐dimensional conceptualization of social capital using longitudinal data on the population of strategic alliances formed during the period 1980–94 by firms in the global steel industry. In addition, we establish predictive validity by demonstrating that the information dimensions have differential effects on firm performance, using firm nationality as a contingency. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transitory alliances: an instrument for surviving turbulent industries?

Over the past decades, firms have constantly struggled to deal effectively with their rapidly changing environment. Especially in high tech industries, costs of R&D have rocketed, whereas steep learning curves and ever shortening product and technology life cycles have reduced the time to recoup these costs. Under such conditions of turbulence, a new form of alliances becomes an important part of the innovator's toolkit: transitory alliances. Transitory alliances can be defined as short–lived alliances that focus on completing narrowly defined tasks in a very short time frame. Companies can no longer rely exclusively on their traditional alliance and M&A practices to survive industry turbulence. Furthermore, transitory alliances can be a wellspring of innovation and provide companies with access to a portfolio of new ideas. They can help companies to acquire knowledge in a swift manner, thereby strengthening their ability to survive the high speed of change. The specific characteristics of this alliance type are discussed in this paper. Typical examples are taken from Internet related sectors.     

Achieving success in technology alliances: The Rover-Honda strategic collaboration

Dynamic changes within global markets are creating a need for different strategies for firms in the pursuit of competitive advantage. International technology alliances are one mode of organising the acquisition of competitive technologies which is especially important in technology-intensive industries. However, managers have an especially difficult challenge when trying to deal with problems of high technical risk, frequent changes in technologies, different cultural and managerial styles and perspectives. This article addresses these issues as it examines the planning and implementation of the international technology alliance between Rover and Honda, during the past fourteen years. By most criteria used, this alliance was highly successful, and the article discusses not only the areas of successful technical impact which the alliance had on these companies, but also the insights learned by Rover from the management process of the alliance. It also develops a framework of issues which managers can use to implement and manage international technology alliances.     

知识经济对会计的影响

本文分析了经济形态与会计发展的关系,现有经济条件下对会计体系的影响,预见了会计改革和发展方向.